BOYS AND GIRLS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 14 (Supplement)

BOYS AND GIRLS

WHAT DO THEY READ? Some idea as to what books boys j and girls really like to read can be , gleaned from the London “Daily Te'egraph." In addition to its daily cross- j word puzzles for adults—puzzles which j are masterpieces for the ingenuity and 1 subtlety of their clues—that paper runs once a week a crossword competition for children under 15, and the prizes offered are books chosen by the winners. An analysis of the selections made during 1930 yields results that will surprise many grown-ups. The most striking feature is the general preference for writers whom most of us would have thought quite out of date. For example, the most popular book among girls to-day, as it was with their mothers and grandmothers, is “Little Women.” Girls also asked for Maria Edgeworth’s books, as well as for Jane Austen’s and Charlotte Bronte’s. Dickens is still in demand among both girls and boys, the girls preferring “A Tale of Two Cities” and “David Copperfield,” while the choice of the boys fell on “Pickwick Papers,” “Barnaby Rudge,” and “Oliver Twist.” Kipling continues a popuar favourite, with “The Jungle Book” heading the list. Girls and boys asked for R. L, Stvenson .in about equal proportion. Marryat, Fenimore Cooper, Henty, and Jules Verne still have their admirers I among boys. The taste for poetry seems limited to girls. There was a fair but large demand for school stories, and here again the preference was for old favourites. Annuals of all kinds were in considerable request, especially among children between the ages of 8 and 12. Little interest was shown in mystery or detective fiction. Girls showed a strong liking for romantic fiction of the “Prisoner of Zenda” type, and for Stanley Weyman's books. There was not a single application for “Alice in Wonderland,” but one girl, aged 9, asked for “Through the Looking Glass.” The one thing in this analysis that might have been anticipated is that many boys wanted technical books dealing with aviation, chemistry, and electricity.

Mr. J. B. PriSstley has left England to gather local colour for his next novel. He intends to cross the United States, lecturing en route, to San Francisco, and thence to Tahiti. He will probably return to England in June via Canada. It will be interesting to see whether the atmosphere of the South Seas will give rise to another “Good Com- j panions.”