Elfinland, with Rhymes, by Josephine Pollard, and designs by Walter
Sattorlee, and Christmas Rhymes and New Year's Chimes, by Mary D. Brine (James Clarke and Co.), are two American illustrated books, which, while produced nominally for children, are really, in literary respects, above their comprehension. The former is the more ambitious of the two, and there are in it some really clever hits, both in drawing and in verse, at the Japanese and aesthetic crazes of the time; while among the pictures is a very funny representation of a dance of starfishes on the sands. The colouring is, in many cases,. however, rather " loud," and some of the figures would be the better for a little more drapery. We prefer the illustrations in the second book ; they are more careful, more truly humorous, and more suited to the intelligence of children.—The Prince and the Penny ; a Fairy Tale, written and illustrated by Charles Harrison (Dean and Son), is elaborately executed, but the costumes of the fairies, Ste., are borrowed too closely from modern ballet and burlesque.—The Baby's Museum, or blether Goose's Nursery Gems (Griffith and Ferran), and Pretty Pictures for Little Paint Brushes, with descriptive stories, illustrated by T. Pyin (John F. Shaw), are deserving of hearty com- mendation for the wealth and humour of their illustrations.— Golden Curl, and other Fairy Stories, by F. A. E. A. (Griffith and Ferran), may also be thoroughly recommended for the attractive reading it contains, and still more for the simple comicality of the illustrations, which are really intended for children, and not for their seniors.
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