Children's Books of 1934
WE are often told that ‘the modern child’ does not care as much about reading as did his uncle or his aunt. We also hear that fairy tales have gone for good and that their place has been taken by a species of realistic stories rendered in unclassifiable prose or verse and designed to interpret the wonders of engineering, the sounds of machinery, to the mind of childhood.
Given a fair chance at all kinds of books, we know this is not the true estimate of literature to-day. Children, it is true, are far more critical of books written for their reading than were the children of a generation ago. But they are quite as receptive to the play of imagination, the delineation of character, the reality of the atmosphere created, the total effect, in short, of good writing.
It is high time, then, that we make acknowledgment of the debt American children owe to Arthur Ransome for a genuine revival of the English storybook in the best tradition. Created for no other purpose than to provide sheer enjoyment to girls and boys living anywhere, Mr. Ransome’s high-spirited children who first appeared in their sailboats on Lake Windermere in. Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale, who were then transported in Peter Duck to a desert island in the Caribbees, are now restored to their Lake Windermere sett ing in Winter Holiday (Lippincott, $2.00).
With its many delightful interpretative illustrations of the English countryside by Helene Carter, Winter Holiday becomes a Christmas book of the first order. Skating, sledging, the building of an igloo, and a voyage to the North Pole are combined into credible adventures both by Mr. Ransome’s skill as a writer and by his feeling of companionship with children.
If children are to be brought to life in books, an author must really know them on their own terms and be capable of representing them in credible speech and action. Mrs. Evelyn Scott’sBilly the Maverick (Holt, $1.75) is the story of a living boy whose adventures one follows with absorbing interest from the time he leaves the Texas ranch where he had lived until he was thirteen years old, an orphan and unknown, until he returns to the cowboys after going to England to claim his title. To read this book is an exhilarating experience for a child or a grown-up. I know of no other book that carries a reader across the continent, into New York, across the Atlantic and into the intimate life of another country, with such excitement, keen observation, and truth to life as a boy sees it. Several years ago, in The Endless Sands, Evelyn Scott staked her claim as a writer of children’s stories. Now she has made good that early promise.
Davy Crockett, by Constance Rourke (Harcourt, Brace, $2.50), is not such a far cry from Billy the Maverick, and for older boys and girls it has enduring interest and commands instant respect for the authenticity of its historical background, clarity of statement, and integrity of personalized character. It is, I think, the outstanding book of the year for boys and girls of high-school age, and its careful documentation makes it no less interesting to the adult reader. Taken together with Captain Thomason’s spirited illustrations for The Adventures of Davy Crockett, told chiefly by himself (Scribners, $2.50), Miss Rourke’s book gives a rare pictorial record of the period.
Jean La Fitte, Gentleman Smuggler, by Mitchell Charnley and illustrated by Jay Van Everen (Viking, $2.50), represents, if more sketchily, another period of American history which boys and girls will thoroughly enjoy reading about. The book has been given distinguished format by Mr. Van Everen’s fine drawings, with their reflection of the times and the picturesque character they represent.
One turns with pleasure to King Richard’s Land, a Tale of the Peasants’ Revolt, by L. A. G. Strong (Knopf, $2.00). With Wat Tyler’s rebellion as source material, Mr. Strong has written a story which brings to life a period of English history suggesting a striking parallel to the stirring times of to-day. No one reading it can miss its close relation to modern labor problems. The characters of the two boys through whose eyes the revolt is seen are well delineated. Zhenya Gay’s illustrations are in harmony with the mediæval atmosphere, and their strength adds to the book.
Two good stories with authentic American background for young girls of high-school age are The Bowlful of Stars, by Florence Crannell Means (Houghton Mifflin, $2,00), and A House of Her Own, by Marjorie Allee (Houghton Mifflin, $2.00). The latter is particularly successful in its picture of a living, interesting girl of the 1840’s.
For the younger children, Flash, the story of a Horse, a Coach-dog, and the Gypsies, by Esther Averill, with pictures by F. Rojankovsky (Smith and Haas, $2.00), will revive the keen pleasure given by Powder, a picture-storybook of the circus by the same gifted artist.
A Day on Skates, by Hilda Van Stockum, with illustrations in color by the author (Harpers, $2.50), is delightfully reminiscent of Hans Brinker, so true is it to Dutch life and custom. The children of this picturestorybook are strongly individualized in the drawings.
Down, Down the Mountain, by Ellis Credle (Nelson, $2.00), breaks new ground against a background of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a large-size picturestorybook in two colors, treated with freshness and real feeling.
Of Dorothy P. Lathrop’sThe Lost Merry Go Round (Macmillan, $2.00) one need only say that it is a lovely book in text and picture, and entirely in keeping with Miss Lathrop’s unfailing ability to give life and meaning to the wild animals of the forest. This story must appeal to a child’s imagination. Miss Lathrop’s The Snail Who Ran (Stokes, $1.00) is another charming little book, charged with keen observation and delicate humor.
For A First Bible (Oxford, $2.50) Helen Sewell has made thirteen full-page stipple drawings of great beauty and simplicity. Jean West Maury has edited but not altered the text of the King James version of the Bible as an accompaniment to these fine drawings.
ANNE CARROLL MOORE