1. The children's librarian, or any librarian, who orders children's books from reviews often finds the books entirely different from what the description has led her to suppose. Even if there is no positive untruth in a notice, it is often misleading from the lack of a standard of comparison with the best books for children.
The papers oftenest taken in a country household or small library are a daily or semi-weekly from the nearest large town or city, a religious weekly, and an agricultural weekly or monthly, sometimes all three, oftener only one or two, and it is from the notices and advertisements with quoted notices in these papers that estimates of books must often be formed. Libraries and library trustees who send book lists from such sources as these to a state public library commission are often surprised that they do not receive what they ask for, and write anxious inquiries as to why certain books have not been bought. "There surely can be no objection to them," they say, "for we took the titles from reviews in the —— or —— or ——," naming denominational papers. Now, lest the Children's Section should be accused of unfairness and denominational prejudices, I shall quote no reviews from these papers, except one which came from a leading religious weekly taken by the household in whose pew I have a seat. It is of Eden Phillpotts' "Human boy," a series of sketches of English schoolboy life, which is dismissed with this remarkable sentence: "The scene here, too, is in the west, and various hunting experiences are recorded." The librarian who orders that book for boys greedy for big game will be disappointed!
Such a mistake as this is not common, but reviews in both religious and secular papers are often perfunctory and meaningless. One reason of this is that many books are published for the Christmas trade, between the 15th of September and the 15th of December, when they come into newspaper offices with a rush, until they are piled in stacks on the desk of the hapless reviewer, and hastily noticed, sometimes by title only. In a new edition of Elizabeth Sheppard's fine, but forgotten novel, "Rumour," whose keynote is the quotation from "Lycidas" on the title-page,
"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil
Set off to the world, nor in broad Rumour lies,
But lives and spreads aloft in those pure eyes
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove,"
the reviewer did not understand the meaning of the lines, and called the book "a good example of the working, influence, and effect of rumour." On one of our own local papers not long ago there was a review of Mrs. Barr's "Maid of Maiden Lane," which was referred to as the sequel to her "Beau of Orange River." Even in newspapers fortunate enough to command the services of specialists for history and science, and an additional critic for novels, the children's books are hastily noticed, sometimes by the youngest reporter in his spare minutes. In smaller offices the task of reviewing all books falls to the hard-worked editor, who is, like Jacob Riis, also his own "reporter, publisher and advertising agent," but whose sense of literary values is often not in proportion to his knowledge of state politics or local reforms.
It is unfortunate that in the newspapers of as high a class as the Outlook, Independent and Dial the notices of children's books are often carelessly written, and show the lack of a standard of comparison. In the Outlook for Nov. 27, 1897, Richard Pryce's "Elementary Jane," a most unchildlike book, is classed among books for children, and "Pansy" and "Elsie" are recommended in other numbers.
In the Independent, where notices of books for older readers are written with discrimination, Ellis's "Klondike nuggets" is described: "Full of lively adventures and exciting experiences, and is told in a straightforward, off-hand style just suited to the purpose." (Oct. 6, 1898.) There is nothing absolutely untrue in this, but there is nothing to guide a reader in comparing it with better books. One of Alger's heroes is mentioned as "An admirable boy with wonderful ability to take care of himself" (Oct. 20, 1898), and a book by Stratemeyer as "a stirring tale, told with enthusiasm." (Oct. 6, 1898.) Stratemeyer is an author who mixes "would" and "should," has the phraseology of a country newspaper, as when he calls a supper "an elegant affair" and a girl "a fashionable miss," and follows Oliver Optic closely in his plots and conversations.
Mrs. Cheever's "Little Mr. Van Vere of China," with its cheap sentiment and well-worn plot of a stolen child coming to his own at last, is commended as "well made, well illustrated." (Dial, Dec. 6, 1898.) A notice in the religious paper mentioned above says, "He is a thoroughly fascinating little fellow, and his story is told most acceptably." One of Amanda Douglas's tales is spoken of as "A story with a fine moral influence, yet not preachy, in the end leaving in the reader's mind the sense of having been in good company." (Independent, Dec. 15, 1898.)
One notice of "Elsie on the Hudson" is: "The multitude of young people who have read the Elsie books, by Martha Finley, will eagerly welcome this volume by the same author. It has to do with American history in the days of the Revolutionary war, and the style is simple and pleasing." In another: "Miss Martha Finley continues also the instruction which is mixed up with that young woman's experiences." (Dial, Dec. 6, 1898.)
It is, I think, the same periodical, though I have not been able to verify the quotation, which commends Harry Steele Morrison's "Yankee boy's success" thus: "The book is interesting, full of push and go. Boys will read it with a gusto; yet they must remember that what this lucky Yankee boy did is not what they all can do." Another number which puts a just estimate on Master Morrison as a "very unlovely and unpleasant sort of boy, whose impudence and enterprise ought later to fit him for a place on a yellow journal," entirely mistakes the purpose of Pugh's "Tony Drum," a realistic story of London slum life, and classes it as a book for boys. (Dial, Dec. 16, 1898.)