ttle Miss Marigold" (1884); "Nursery Land," by H. J. Maguire (1888),
and "Sunbeams," by E. K. Johnson and Ewart Wilson (1887).

F. D. Bedford, who illustrated and decorated "The Battle of the Frogs
and Mice" (Methuen), has produced this year one of the most satisfactory
books with coloured illustrations. In "Nursery Rhymes" (Methuen), the
pictures, block-printed in colour by Edmund Evans, are worthy to be
placed beside the best books he has produced.

Of all lady illustrators--the phrase is cumbrous, but we have no
other--Miss A. B. Woodward stands apart, not only by the vigour of her
work, but by its amazing humour, a quality which is certainly infrequent
in the work of her sister-artists. The books she has illustrated are not
very many, but all show this quality. "Banbury Cross," in Messrs. Dent's
Series is among the first. In "To Tell the King the Sky is Falling"
(Blackie, 1896) there is a store of delicious examples, and in "The
Brownies" (Dent, 1896), the vigour of the handling is very noticeable.
In "Eric, Prince of Lorlonia" (Macmillan, 1896), we have further proof
that these characteristics are not mere accidents, but the result of
carefully studied intention, which is also apparent in the clever
designs for the covers of Messrs. Blackie's Catalogue, 1896-97. This
year, in "Red Apple and Silver Bells," Miss Woodward shows marked
advance. The book, with its delicious rhymes by Hamish Hendry, is one to
treasure, as is also her "Adventures in Toy Land," designs marked by the
_diablerie_ of which she, alone of lady artists, seems to have the
secret. In this the wooden, inane expression of the toys contrasts
delightfully with the animate figures.

Mr. Charles Robinson is one of the youngest recruits to the army of
illustrators, and yet his few years' record is both lengthy and kept at
a singularly high level. In the first of his designs which attracted
attention we find the half-grotesque, half-real child that he has made
his own--fat, merry little people, that are bubbling over with the joy
of mere existence. "Macmillan's Literary Primers" is the rather
ponderous title of these booklets which cost but a few pence each, and
are worth many a half-dozen high-priced nursery books. Stevenson's
"Child's Garden of Verse," his first important book, won a new
reputation by reason of its pictures. Then came "AEsop's Fables," in
Dent's "Banbury Cross" Series. The next year saw Mr. Gabriel Setoun's
book of poems, "Child World