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There is an Everyman’s Library—why not an Everychild’s Library? Well, one has been begun. It is called The Beacon Hill Bookshelf and already eight volumes are to be had. One of them, The Boy Whaleman, has never been published before; the others are all established favorites stamped with the approval of librarians and parents as well as of children themselves. But even the old ones are printed from new type and all the books are illustrated in color by well-known artists—five to eight color plates apiece.
The first book on The Beacon Hill Bookshelf is the book that still is first on children’s bookshelves everywhere throughout America. It is the book which, in a recent wide competition conducted by The Bookman, led all other “juveniles.” Its author was Louisa M. Alcott, and its title is Little Women: or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Nowadays when you ask people like Hugh Walpole and Frank Swinnerton what American books they have read they have a way of recalling at once that Louisa M. Alcott was one of the first, and—without prejudice to other writers—has remained one of the most memorable. The Beacon Hill Little Women has pictures by Jessie Willcox Smith, and is properly companioned in the series by its sequel, Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys. Reginald Birch has done the pictures for Little Men.
Of the other six books, I must draw your attention especially to two: the one which is published for the first time and one by John Masefield. George F. Tucker’s The Boy Whaleman has a place in the series because it deals with the experiences of an American lad more than sixty years ago—almost as far back as Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast. Based on fact, Mr. Tucker’s book is a thrilling account of a New Bedford boy’s three years’ voyage on a whaling ship.
Mr. Masefield’s book, Martin Hyde, the Duke’s Messenger, is illustrated by T. C. Dugdale, and is a spirited story of a boy who served the Duke of Monmouth in his attempt to gain the throne of James II. The tale is therefore one of the Monmouth Rebellion, as the rebellion of 1685 in England is most often called. Owing to the distinction with which Mr. Masefield writes, this book is one of the very best of adventure stories for boys’ or girls’ reading.
Besides the four books of which I have tried to tell something, the Beacon Hill Bookshelf also holds these four to date:
What Katy Did, by Susan Coolidge. This is the most popular of Susan Coolidge’s books, the story of a girl who would not let illness and invalidism keep her from doing things.
The Story of Rolf and the Viking’s Bow, by Allen French. Rolf avenges his father’s murder and earns the viking’s bow in a story with incidents drawn from the Icelandic sagas.
Nelly’s Silver Mine, by Helen Hunt Jackson. This book by the author of Ramona is as popular today as forty years ago. It is the story of Rob and Nelly, twins in New England, who take a long journey to a new home in Colorado, where Nelly finds the mine of the title.
A Daughter of the Rich, by Mary E. Waller. The story is a great favorite with girls, who never fail to be interested in the account of a year spent on a farm in Vermont by a rich young city girl. Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott has made the pictures in color.