Untitled Book Review

ANNE CARROLL MOORE, of the New York Public Library, chooses for us a Christmas garner of new books for children.

WHEN the whole family, regardless of age, can rally round a book the four-year-old has taken to his heart, then indeed there is hope for the future. Such a book is Ola, by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (Double| day, Doran, $2.00).Ola is a book of rare quality and significance. It is as true to childhood’s country as it is to Norway. In outward form Ola is a beautiful picture book admirably reproduced in color and in black and white by the lithographic process. In its essence it is creative work of a high order, for it is saturated with the spirit of Norway and Norwegian life and thoroughly authentic in its representation of form. To one who knows Norway the book is a sublimation of many impressions, conveyed with complete sincerity and charm. The child who hails Ola as his friend and companion becomes the unconscious possessor of a spacious background for future enjoyment of Norse literature.

Another distinctive picture book is Daniel Boone: Historic Adventures of an American Hunter among the Indians (Bookshop for Boys and Girls, Boston, $3.50). The lithographs in color by Fedor Rojanovsky reflect the impressions made by the story on the child mind of a Russian artist who, in maturity, has remembered and set down the forest scenes in dramatic sequence. Esther Averill and Lila Stanley provided the simple narrative text. This colorful pictorial form invests the Boone story with fresh life and provides a unique first book in American history.

The reader who has pored over the fascinating cover jacket, the maps and pictures of Van Loon’s Geography (Simon and Schuster, $3.75) will understand how stimulating an addition it is to a selection of children’s books which has been made with the idea of extending the view over the world. As soon as children begin to draw maps they will enjoy Mr. Van Loon’s. The text is another matter. Selections from it will doubtless be appreciated by boys as young as nine, although the book was not written for children and it belongs among the Christmas gifts of the older boy or girl.

Magic Porthtdes, by Helen Follett (Macmillan, $2.30), is an original and refreshing book of travel written with shrewd observation and a keen sense of fun and adventure. A mother and her daughter share the unusual voyage on tramp steamers, cargo boats, and liners, exploring the West Indies and the South Sea Islands with a zest that is felt by the reader. The end papers in brilliant colors and the many illustrations by Armstrong Sperry make this an attractive book for adventurous girls and their mothers.

The Unicorn with Silver Shoes, by Ella Young (Longmans, Green, $2.00), is that rarest of all books for the Christmas Shelf, a genuine fairy tale tilled with Ogres and Magicians and Strange Beasts, Poets and Pookas and incomparable conversations between the Wise of the Land of the Ever Young and the Foolish of the Civilized World. The book has all the sparkle of stories shared with children by a story-teller whose powers of invention are as inexhaustible as her command of the language of Faery Land. Pure poetry, keen wit, and the laughter and wonder of children are here in full measure.

Robert Lawson’s illustrations and cover design form a delightful setting for the tales.

Very different in content but admirable in their own right are the stories in Margery Bianco’sA Street of Little Shops (Doubleday, Doran, $1.50). There is shrewd observation of American village life; its humor and its pathos are finely touched in such stories as the inimitable ‘Hats for Horses’ and ‘The Baker’s Daughter.’ The quarrel between Mr. A and Mr. P, who keep a grocery store, will amuse grown-ups as well as children. Grace Paull has caught the spirit and intention of these tales of everyday life in clever drawings in color and in black and white. These are stories to read aloud.

Memorable nonsense verses are to be found in Tirra Lirra, by Laura E. Richards (Little, Brown, $2.50), ‘Some Families of My Acquaintance,’‘Mrs. Snipkin and Mrs. Wobblechin,’‘Sir Ringleby Rose,’‘Punkydoodle and Jollapin,’ ‘The Wiggledy wasticus,’and certain others deserve a form and an illustrator of their own. Tirra Lirra includes over one hundred poems; some thirty new ones bear witness to the perennial youth of this great-grandmother of American nonsense.

ANNE CARROLL MOORE