page 59

Among The Books.
Our Book Causerie
The Gift-Book Season—A Spate of Annuals.

Christmas and New Year festive—we had almost written restive—season is with us again, and with it comes that annual problem—the choice of presents for the children. The choice of toys we are glad to leave to the mothers and the aunties of the little ones. Generally, we find the job of advising parents and friends on the choice of books as presents for children is sufficiently bewildering. This year it is more so, the number of new books of a high order, as regards matter and make, quantity and quality, being greater than ever before. The variety of choice presented in the various booksellers’ catalogues is so great that no taste need be left unsatisfied—unsatiated; but the actual business of selecting is attended with so many anxieties that, were it for ourselves we were asked to choose, we would beg to decline, by saying that we preferred to borrow an old one!

It was “Owen Meredith” (Lord Robert Lytton) who once upon a time penned the now well-known lines:

We may live without poetry, music and art;

We may live without conscience and live without heart;

We may live without friends, we may live without books;

But civilised man cannot live without cooks. To-day, we feel certain, that civilised man would subscribe to the above only on condition that the rhymes of the closing couplet were transposed. In these new lands on the fringe of the Empire many men do live without “cooks,” but if their lot is cast in circumstances where they are shut out also from “books,” then, they do not live—they merely exist.

The Christmas catalogues contain the titles of over four thousand books for children—from the “very young” to young men and young maidens attending college. Many of the volumes named are, of course, old favourites; quite a number of them, books that our fathers and mothers, and their fathers and mothers, read when children. Their appeal is as potent to-day; so here they are again, like the clown in the pantomime—R. M. Ballantyne, W. H. G. Kingston, G. Manville Fenn, Charles Kingsley, G. A. Henty, etc., back to Dickens and Scott. Volumes with such names on their title-pages need no words of commendation from us, at least, in regard to their literary content. That has been tasted and tested out long ago, and not found wanting. As to their dress—printing, binding, illustrations, etc.—in every case these are all that could be desired, indeed, much more than, only a few years ago, could have been produced at double the price.

Among the new books are the ever entertaining Annuals. Almost every publisher to-day caters for the child reader at this season of the year by issuing several Annuals under well-known distinctive titles.

“Blackie's Boys’ Annual” provides a remarkable amount of adventure and romance, while at the same time finding space for interesting articles dealing with camping, swimming, and other topics calculated to stir the boyish imagination. “Blackie's Girls’ Annual” shows us how varied are the interests that appeal to the modern girl, for here, besides most interesting and arresting fiction, we have articles on the various pastimes and amusements, and also spare-time occupations for girls. Then we have “Blackie's Children's Annual” and “Blackie's Little Ones’ Annual,” two most enjoyable miscellanies for youngsters of both sexes, whose stage of development may be represented as midway between the “boys” and “girls,” and those who are “little ones.”

Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton's publications are beautiful volumes, ranging from “Tommy Tucker's Stories” and “Cinderella,” to George Eliot's “Adam Bede” and R. L. Stevenson's “Kidnapped.” Besides many books for children there is an excellent array of the best standard fiction. These books, like their contents, their paper, printing and binding, are all in the front rank.

page 60

Every year the illustrated Annuals issued by the Oxford University Press provide a fresh occasion to admire the skill, the taste, and the thoroughness with which they have been prepared to appeal to the various grades of juvenile readers. The editors, as in former years, therein show a real flair for the topics and treatment best calculated to attract and hold young readers, boys and girls, at various stages of development. “The Oxford Annual for Boys,” which, this year, marks its twenty-second birthday, presents a wealth of tales of adventure and much other instructive and no less interesting matter. “The Oxford Annual for Scouts” contains, in addition to stories, much instructive matter that all true Scouts will read with avidity and take care to remember should the need arise. “The Oxford Annual for Girls” more than maintains its repute for excellence in stories, general articles and illustrations. Then comes “The Oxford Annual for Tiny Folks,” with picture and letterpress to suit. And last, “The Oxford Annual for Baby,” which is prepared with a due recognition of the fact that the youngest and weakest member of the family is also the most destructive.

Nobody with any experience of children but knows how difficult it is to hit upon just the right kind of book to suit a particular case, so that Willie, age eight, may not be provided with a volume more suitable for his cousin age twelve, or that Jean, age fourteen, does not get an “Annual” which, in her matured opinion, is only suitable for a mere “kid!” If the mere choosing of the particular book for a child is so difficult, one can appreciate the task of the editors of these wonderful “Annuals.” In this particular, the four “Annuals” issued by Messrs. Collins, are equal with the best. These are “Collins' Cub and Brownies' Annual,” “Collins' Boy Scout Annual,” “Collins' Girl Guides' Annual,” and “Collins' Adventure Annual.” These are all substantial volumes, full of good reading, both stories and articles of the “How to —” kind, of which boys and girls never tire, and with plenty of illustrations.

There are dozens of other “Annuals,” but limitation of space makes it impossible for us to mention them all. Of this we can assure our readers—they are all of a very high standard as such books go.