PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1940, Page 19

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

The City Librarian has chosen "Chad Hanna," by Walter D. Edmonds, as the book of the week, and ha s furnished the1 following review;—

"Chad Hanna" is already a bestseller in the United States and is finding favour with the British public, It is a story of a circus, 'The central character is Chad Hanna, an orphan who leaves his orphanage to become an indentured apprentice to a farmer; Not liking the work he runs away! and becomes a barge driver on the Erie Canal. His experience here with horses and his natural love for them gain him the job of ostler at the Yellow Bud Inn on the banks of the canal. Chad finds himself in hot water through helping a runaway slave to escape and is glad enough to join up with Huguenine's Great and Only international Circus. Caroline, a six-teen-year-old girl and the daughter of an unpleasant fellow of whom Chad has got the better over a reward offered by the plantation owner, goes with him, and from this' point the story of Chad and Caroline is the story of Hu^udnine's Great and Only. A rather sprawling narrative, the story is yet very competently done and the different characters, notably Albany Yates, the equestrienne, Ike Wayfish, the clown, and Mrs. Huguenine, the fat woman, to say nothing of Mr. Bisbee, the business agent, are clear-cut and convincing. Caroline becomes a remarkable success as a horsewoman, and for a time the vicissitudes of the circus are dependent upon the health of Oscar, the lion. On his death there is a period of difficulty, | eventually overcome by the purchase [ of an elephant. Disappointingly fnough, he has no tusks,, but at any rate.he l can be considered the first step on the ladder1 of prosperity. "Chad Hahna" lis not much more than an extremely [ pleasant, rambling narrative, but its characterisations are worthy of Mark Twain, and the coils and difficulties in which the characters become involved are diverting and entertaining. RECENT LIBRARY ADDITIONS. Other titles selected from recent accession lists are as follows:—General: "Hearts and Pomegranates," by Dame IK. Furse; "A Woman Talking," by E. H. Meynell; 'Police and Crime Detection Today," by R. Morrish. Fiction: "When the Whippoorwill . . ~" by M. K. Rawlings; "The Bright Pavilions'," by H. Walpole; "The Big Wheel," by M. Benney.