only seriously discussing them but putting
them into practice. Speaking of putting things into practice, there is
only one spot in all of the books which seemed to me as if it might get
some children into trouble. The description of Waspy Weasel's trick on the
schoolmaster in Helter Skelter Land where he squeezes bittersweet juice
into the schoolmaster's milk and puts him to sleep, I think would lead any
inquiring mind to try it.

"The whale who loved peppermints, Torty Turtle with his seagull's wings
on, the adventures of the children when they help Mr. Tingaling collect
the rents--this isn't the same old stuff of the endless 'bedtime' stories
which are dealt out to us by the yard. These animals are real people with
the tinge which takes real imagination to paint.

"At first I was disappointed in the pictures, but as I read on I came
to like those also, and I found that they were wholly satisfactory to the
children. The picture of the thousand legger with all his shoes on is
entrancing, and poor Mrs. Frog cutting out clothes because the
dressmaker had made them for the children when they were still
tadpoles. These books ought to come like an oasis in the desert to the
poor-jaded-reading-aloud-parent."

=vi=

At Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, in a small house built from her own plans
and standing 2,000 feet above sea level, in a growing shade of trees,
lives Marion Ames Taggart, author of the Jack-in-the-Box series--four
children's books that renew their popularity every year. They are:

AT GREENACRES
THE QUEER LITTLE MAN
THE BOTTLE IMP
POPPY'S PLUCK

_At Greenacres_ and _The Queer Little Man_ are particularly good to read
aloud to a group of children; they really are the mystery and detective
story diluted for children.

Miss Taggart, an only child and extremely frail in childhood, had the good
fortune as a consequence of ill-health to be educated entirely at home. As
a result she had free access to really good books--for the home was in
Haverhill, Mass. She began to carry out a cherished wish to write for
young girls in 1901, when her first book (for girls of about sixteen) was
published in St. Nicholas. She has a habit of transplanting four-footed
friends in her stories under their own names--as where, in the
Jack-in-the-Box series, one finds Pincushion, Miss Taggart's own plump
grey kitten.

What will the chil