20–17532
“This is the story of a little girl who visited the land behind the dictionary and found out for herself that words are alive.” Eileen was sitting in the schoolroom writing out the words she had misspelled and trying to remember that syntax doesn’t end in tacks, when the letter X suddenly jumped out of her inkwell and confronted her. Under his guidance she visited Dictionary Town and there met the words who live in English Wordland, “plain strong Anglo-Saxon words, French aristocrat words who came over with William the Conqueror, the old giant Greek and Latin words, foreign words from every land who have been adopted by Mother English Language, and the happy-go-lucky slang words who live in a gipsy camp outside of Dictionary Town.” The whimsical illustrations are by Stuart Hay.
“A very clever little idea, this. With all her fun, the author tries to be soundly etymological, which will please the educators, without annoying the children. The illustrator, Stuart Hay, adds much with his line-drawings to a book which is bound to give its readers a good time.”
+ Lit D p90 D 4 ’20 270w
“It will be an excellent book for supplementary reading in the elementary grades. The story moves with much briskness and variety.”
+ N Y Evening Post p14 N 13 ’20 220w
MACDONNELL, JAMES FRANCIS CARLIN (FRANCIS CARLIN, pseud.). Cairn of stars. *$1.50 Holt 821
20–9075
A second volume of poems by the author of “My Ireland.” As in the previous volume lyric verse predominates and the themes are drawn from Irish landscape and custom and fairy lore. A few of the titles are: The cairn of stars; A girl’s song; The black swans; The market town; The seventh son; A Munster marriage; An Irish madonna; For a god-child; The queen of Kerry; The coming of the fairies; The herdsman’s son; The beggar’s blessing.