mother," but it will not harm any of those who read it. Miss Jordan knows all about girls, their ideas and their ideals, and she gives a faithful and entertaining study of girls' amusements and pursuits. Biddy's Episodes* The girls will also want to read "Biddy's Episodes." Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney has written girls' books for over forty years A A Book of Flowers LL of our great poets have loved flowers and have sung the praises of their beauteous colorings and shapes and of their limitless range of exquisite fragrances and odors. The man or the woman or the child who does not love flowers, who sees in them no messages of divine import, who feels in them no response to all emotions, must indeed be, man, woman or child, without soul and without feeling. In a volume appropriately made, with binding of heliotrope stamped with stately. sprays of roses, chrysanthemums and lilies, with pages wreathed with crocuses, violets, callas, rose-buds, lilacs and again chrysanthemums, accompanied by illustrations made from photographs of many kinds of flowers, Mr. N. Hudson Moore has written a flower anthology upon a small scale, written it as only an ardent flower-lover could write, with an enthusiasm and appreciation for the beautiful blooms that will find sympathy from countless readers and will afford hours of pleasure to those who have the happy experience of perusing it. The book is an excellent example of *BIDDY'S EPISODES. By Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. FLOWER FABLES AND FANCIES. By N. Hudson Moore, author of "The Old China Book," etc. Illustrated. With decorations by Frederick G. Hall. Frederick A. Stokes Co. botany studied from an ideal standpoint. Here no scalpel waits to tear and shatter. only a loving heart to cherish tenderly, only loving hands to give gracious care which means such great reward when buds burst into perfect blossoms and perfume subtle and delicious fills all the air about with precious draughts of inspiration. Mr. Moore begins with the early spring and golden crocuses, and takes up the rest of the most familiar flowers as chronologically they bloom, in field and forest and meadowland and garden until he reaches the late Fall and the sturdy chrysanthemum, which in the flower language means "courage in adversity." The book reads like so many essays, poetically written; in substance, it contains many profitable facts; the various. flower subjects are described, the author tells where they grow and how they grow; and all this is supplemented by a wealth of classical allusion, poetry, historic fact, flower customs, and flower symbolism, the whole making a veritable flower book that cannot fail to appeal to flower-lovers everywhere. If you have a friend whose. face lights at the sight of a woodland rose or the discovery of a first violet in the new spring, to that friend give this little volume at Christmas-time, and he or she may live with the flowers, even though the ground be hard with snow and the tree branches bare against a grey, bleak sky. some line or parts of two lines from the verse following, the picture set in an elaborate and daintily traced page-border; the second page contains the stanza itself and the third, opposite the second, contains a E PHILLIS From Love Finds the Way " full-page illustration in tints. The book is large, handsomely bound, with an oval picture of old Aunt Mary, drawn by Mr. Christy, on the cover. The whole makes the first of the season's gift-books in beauty and probably in popularity. The Ford Christmas book for 1904 is "Love Finds the Way,"* another of Paul Leicester Ford's charming love stories, in Christmas dress, with full-page photogravures from Harrison Fisher's drawings. and flower borders in color for each page. In the "Renaissance Series," Tennyson's "Holy Grail" has been chosen for the new volume and it comes to hand, resplendent in green limp leather, with Watt's "Sir Galahad" etched for frontispiece and the type set in decorative borders. As companion volume to the exquisite edition in gold and white of Rossetti's "Sonnets," which was issued last year, is published Mrs. Browning's "Portuguese Sonnets." The ink decorations and the photogravure frontispiece add to the beauty of the volume. The book-lover handles such volumes as these with thrills of delight. Nothing more choice could be found as Christmas gifts than these three books-for the Browning lover, the Rossetti lover, or the Tennyson admirer. The Riley book would give pleasure to anyone, for all can understand and appreciate its delicate humor, its homely scenes, its kindly spirit. The Young People's Library ACH year seems to surpass the preceding one in the amount of literary production, and we cannot but marvel at the enterprise, and the real courage displayed by publishers, as we view the influx of books submitted to the reading public. It is with no small reason, then, that the prospective purchaser pauses in trepidation, as he contemplates the array of juvenile literature offered to him at this especial season. Naturally anxious to make a wise and careful selection, one will be grateful for the timely hint that will assist in pointing out what is desirable for the children's library. The importance of the subject cannot be over-estimated, and the wide reaching results will more than repay a little time, care and trouble. The average child is of a happy disposition, and quick to show its appreciation of everything that tends to paint the happy side of life; so armed with this unconscious co-operation of the young, the task *LOVE FINDS THE WAY. By Paul Leicester Ford, author of "Janice Meredith." Illustrated by Harrison Fisher. Dodd, Mead & Co. THE HOLY GRAIL. By Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The Renaissance Series. Illustrated. H. M. Caldwell Co. #PORTUGUESE SONNETS. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Illustrated. H. M. Caldwell Co. is made comparatively easy in choosing books that will please and amuse, as well as instruct. In timely fashion, there comes from the hand of Jacob A. Riis a slender little volume, titled, "Is there a Santa Claus ?"* Published some years ago in one of the magazines, and now issued for the first time in book form, it is the answer to the question of a little chap of the frontier, who wrote to an editor asking: "Will you please tell me if there is a Santa Claus? Papa says 'No.'" It is a unique reply, with Santa Claus explained in the personification of philanthropy, charity and kindness. time. So she gives a surprise party, inviting all the older members of her family, and from each guest she requests a story. The result is a number of stories within a story, all of which are very pleasing and will entertain other girls and boys just as they entertained Kristy. The children will be almost as well pleased with Harriet, the bright little heroine in "Looking for Alice,"* as they were with "Alice in Wonderland;" and will follow her with as much zest and delight as they did the famous Alice. Harriet, like all other girls who have read "Alice in Wonderland," was very anxious to find "Kristy's Queer Christmas,"t by Olive Thorne Miller, comes as a distinct surprise, Mrs. Miller having been for a long time a writer of books on birds, their haunts and habits. The story runs that Kristy, debarred from the usual enjoyments of childhood, on account of illness, is permitted to make what plans she will for her own entertainment at Christmas *IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS? By Jacob A. Riis. The Macmillan Co. KRISTY'S QUEER CHRISTMAS. By Olive Thorne Miller. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. her, so enters the land of dreams through an old well, and begins a keen hunt for Alice. With her prying eyes and persevering spirit she has adventures that equal, if they do not excel those of Alice. Anything from Mrs. E. Nesbit will be hailed with delight by boys and girls. In her latest book, "The Phoenix and the Carpet," are five as real and genuine chil*LOOKING FOR ALICE. By Walter Burges Smith. Lothrop Publishing Co. PHOENIX AND THE CARPET, THE. By E. Nesbit. The Macmillan Co. |