STORIES FOR CHILDREN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20455, 7 November 1934, Page 14

STORIES FOR CHILDREN.

Books Illustrated by the Authoress. CHRISTCHURCH GIRL'S TALENT. Most mothers of young children are called upon more or less frequently to play the role of story-teller so*that the maternal imagination comes in for a good deal of exercise in this direction. Few mothers, however, have the talent and application of Dorothy Wall (Mrs Badgery), who has converted the stories she invented for the amusement of her small son Peter into a series of delightful children’s books, says a writer in the “ Sydney Morning Herald.” The author-artist has an outspoken young critic in nine-year-old son Peter to whom she reads her stories chapter by chapter as she writes them. Peter is quite frank in his opinions, and always has a sound reason to back up his criticism. How handy to be able to test the feelings of one’s reading public like this. “ Bridget and the Bees,” just published by Methuen and Co., London, has a dedication “to all those little people who like honey for tea,” and that goes for most of them. Dorothy Wall, with the afd of a simple little story, tells the young folk just how it is the singing masons get to work to make the supper-time bon bouche. Not only is the book a nature study without tears, but the illustrations of the bees arc scientifically correct. The artist left nothing to chance and .sketched her drawings from real bees. It was not quite as risky as it sounds, for the bees—queen and worker and drone—were sent down from an apiary in the Kangaroo Valley district. They came, these somewhat reluctant little artist’s models, in tiny cages and by the ordinary post. Then with the aid of a magnifying glass their pictures w'ere got down on paper. For illustrations in her other books, Dorothy Wall does a good deal of sketching at the Museum, and on these expeditions she is often accompanied by Peter. The sitting-room of the Blue Mountains cottage where they live has. hanging over the fireplace, a water colour of a finch, the tangible result of sending a small boy away with paints and paper to “ run along and amuse himself ” while mother was busy drawing museum exhibits. The water colour shows marked indications that mother’s talent has been inherited. At the age of eleven. Dorothy Wall received her first scholarship at the Christchurch (New Zealand) School of Art. From there she progressed rapidly, winning other awards. and completed her studies at the Wellington (New Zealand) Technical School. Her art instructor there was Maud Sherwood, who took a keen interest in the work of her pupil. But the road to success has not been an easy one. for the artist-author has been through the mill as newspaper and fashion artist in the city, and has given many years to her work before achieving the goal of her ambition. A previous book, “ Blinky Bill,” published by Angus and Robertson, has met with such success that its sequel is now off the press.