Fantastic Stuff
Tistou of the Green Fingers. By Maurice Druon, translated from the French by Humphrey Hare. (Hart-Davis, 15s.)
Father of Railways. By 0. S. Nock. (Nelson, 10s. 6d.)
Some Time Stories is a delightful collection of stories for the 3-to-5-year-old. Most of them take about five minutes to read, including due appre- ciation of the author's drawings which are of the type the child might draw himself. One of my favourites is 'Nelson's Egg,' about the hen who took pity on Lord Nelson's loneliness in Trafalgar Square and agreed to lay him an egg every morn- ing. 'The Pig who tried to Fly' and 'The Magic Wishing Tree' are also excellent : original, matter- of-factly incongruous and altogether enjoyable.
Rend Guillot is recognised as an excellent writer of adventure and animal stories. In The Blue Day he shows he can write for 5-to-7-year- old girls as well. The blue day is the day on which neglected dolls can have their hearts' desire, and Mia from her Dutch attic goes to play with a real, live baby. Margery Gill's drawings catch the mood of effortless enchantment and are faithful to the text in all details.
From the pleasant to the peculiar : Tistou is original in theme—a small boy with phen- omenally green lingers. Plants spring forth from the ground or walls he touches and flower in a matter of minutes. He transforms slums and prisons, cures a little girl, stops a war and finally disappears up a ladder to heaven. 6-8 would be the age range, but I found the style coy, especially at the beginning, and frankly unpleasant at one point. It suffers from one of the chief faults of children's books : writing down. How much this has to do with the translation I cannot say. Jaqueline Duheme's illustrations are most original, but I doubt if many children will appreciate their fantasy.
There is an ever-increasing flow of biographies for young people, and though this is thoroughly laudable most publishers seem to start monoto- nously with the same list of famous people. Nel- son's 'Picture Biographies' are an exception : they already include a life of Solon and one of Colonel Fawcett. The latest in the series are Man of the White South (Captain Scott), by Admiral Lord Mountevans, and Father of Railways (George Stephenson), by 0. S. Nock, the railway historian. Admiral Mountevans, who finished writing his book just before his death last year, makes no attempt to write a life of Scott. He is concerned simply with the Antarctic expeditions, and was one of the last men to see Scott alive. Mr. Nock is more thorough and has produced in the same number of pages (eighty-four) a very readable account of Stephenson's life and the early development of engines and railway lines with humour and not too many technicalities. Both are lavishly illustrated in black and white and in three colours by Robert Hodgson's lively drawings. His antarctic scenes are particularly effective, the engines perhaps less so, though there are some wonderful speed effects. Age group : intelligent 10-14.
ELIZABETH HENNIKER HEATON
Previous page
