Gift Books.
Sarah the Valiant. By Theodora Wilson Wilson. Author of “The Magic Jujubes,” “A Navvy from King’s,” etc. With 8 illustrations.
3s. 6d.
The Truant Five. By Raymond Jacberns. Author of “The New Pupil,” etc. With 6 illustrations.
3s. 6d.
There is no present that is more acceptable to a girl than a nice book; yet how difficult it is to find exactly the right thing! There are, of course, dozens of books published every autumn that are harmless enough, and will, very possibly, afford a certain amount of pleasure for the moment to the average young lady—but the perfect book for girls must have so many qualities, mostly negative, no doubt, but some positive as well. The perfect girl’s book should not contain any mention of “things” (as Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer would say). Well, there are plenty that do not, but where such books fall short of perfection is that “grown-ups” find them dreadfully tedious to read aloud in the family circle. That is what is wanted; a book that will interest and amuse everybody; if it comes up to that requirement it is certain to interest and amuse girls.
Here are two books that everybody will like: “Sarah the Valiant,” by Theodora Wilson Wilson, is full of entertainment; the characters all live, and though pathos is never obtruded, the story is full of the tenderness of which the author has already shown herself to be possessed in “The Magic Jujubes.” Raymond Jacberns’s “The Truant Five” is equally certain to please. So graphically are the young people’s wanderings described, that the staidest of aunts must feel the vagabond spirit thrill within her, though the common-sense denouement of the story can be relied on as an infallible moral antidote. Both books are beautifully illustrated, and the titles are worth remembering: “Sarah the Valiant” and “The Truant Five.”