," Mrs. Meynell's "The Children," Mr. H. D.
Lowry's "Make Believe," and two decorated pages in "The Parade" (Henry
and Co.). The present Christmas will see several books from his hand.

"Old World Japan" (George Allen) has thirty-four, and "Legends from
River and Mountain," forty-two, pictures by T. H. Robinson, which must
not be forgotten. "The Giant Crab" (Nutt), and "Andersen" (Bliss,
Sands), are among the best things W. Robinson has yet done.

[Illustration]

"Nonsense," by A. Nobody, and "Some More Nonsense," by A. Nobody
(Gardner, Darton & Co.), are unique instances of an unfettered humour.
That their apparently naive grotesques are from the hand of a very
practised draughtsman is evident at a first glance; but as their author
prefers to remain anonymous his identity must not be revealed. Specimens
from the published work (which is, however, mostly in colour), and
facsimiles of hitherto unpublished drawings, entitled "The Singing
Lesson," kindly lent by Messrs. Gardner, Darton & Co., are here to prove
how merry our anonym can be. By the way, it may be well to add that the
artist in question is _not_ Sir Edward Burne-Jones, whose caricatures,
that are the delight of children of all ages who know them, have been so
far strictly kept to members of the family circle, for whom they were
produced.

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "LITTLE FOLKS." BY MAURICE BOUTET DE
MONVEL. (CASSELL AND CO.)]

The editor of THE STUDIO, to whose selection of pictures for
reproduction these pages owe their chief interest, has spared no effort
to show a good working sample of the best of all classes, and in the
space available has certainly omitted few of any consequence--except
those so very well known, as, for instance, Tenniel's "Alice" series,
and the Caldecott toy-books--which it would have been superfluous to
illustrate again, especially in black and white after coloured
originals.

In Mrs. Field's volume already mentioned, the author says: "It has been
well observed that children do not desire, and ought not to be furnished
with purely realistic portraits of themselves; the boy's heart craves a
hero, and the Johnny or Frank of the realistic story-book, the little
boy like himself, is not in this sense a hero." This passage, referring
to the stories themselves, might be applied to their illustration with
hardly less force. To idealise is the normal impulse of a child. True
that it can "make believe" from the most rudimentary