Three Years of Age
Reading edition
A dreary place would be this earth,
Were there no little people in it;
. . . . . . . . . .
Life's song, indeed, would lose its charm,
Were there no babies to begin it
.
Whittier.
Picture-books
What an unprejudiced and wholly spontaneous acclaim awaits the artist who gives his best to the little ones! They do not place his work in portfolios or locked glass cases; they thumb it to death, surely the happiest of all fates for any printed book.
Gleeson White.
Bannerman, Helen. *The Story of Little Black Sambo. Stokes. .50
Written and illustrated by an Englishwoman in India for her two small daughters, Little Black Sambo, with its absurd story, and funny crude pictures in color, will delight young children of all lands.
Caldecott, Randolph (Illustrator). The Farmer's Boy. Warne. .25
These delicately colored prints, with their atmosphere of English country life, well accord with the old cumulative verses which they accompany. Mr. Caldecott has charmingly illustrated this and the following picture-books. Some of the illustrations in each book are in color and some in black and white.
The Caldecott toy-books,
They fix for all time
The favorite heroes
Of nursery rhyme.
The Caldecott toy-books--
We never shall find
A gracefuller pencil,
A merrier mind!
L.
Caldecott, Randolph (Illustrator). A Frog He Would a-Wooing Go. Warne. .25
The drawings portray Mr. Frog, Mr. Rat, and the tragic ending to the festivities at Mousey's Hall.
Caldecott was a fine literary artist, who was able to express himself with rare facility in pictures in place of words, so that his comments upon a simple text reveal endless subtleties of thought.... You have but to turn to any of his toy-books to see that at times each word, almost each syllable, inspired its own picture.... He studied his subject as no one else ever studied it.... Then he portrayed it simply and with inimitable vigor, with a fine economy of line and colour; when colour is added, it is mainly as a gay convention, and not closely imitative of nature.
Gleeson White.
Caldecott, Randolph (Illustrator). Hey Diddle Diddle, and Baby Bunting. Warne. .25
The pictures to Hey Diddle Diddle are instinct with joyousness. Baby Bunting's father was a jovial huntsman of the old English type.
Caldecott, Randolph (Illustrator). The House that Jack Built. Warne. .25
Children will be greatly amused by the funny Rat.
"That ate the Malt, That lay in the House that Jack built."
Caldecott, Randolph (Illustrator). The Milkmaid. Warne. .25
We are glad when the young squire, whose interest in the destination of the pretty maid the old song recounts, meets his proper deserts through the clever pencil of Mr. Caldecott.
Caldecott, Randolph (Illustrator). The Queen of Hearts. Warne. .25
These pictures suggest in color and design those found on playing cards, and they are very good indeed.
Caldecott, Randolph
(Illustrator).
Ride a-Cock Horse to Banbury Cross, and A Farmer Went Trotting upon His Grey Mare. Warne. .25
Wouldn't we all like to ride these sturdy nags through the lovely English country, even if we weren't to have the extra attraction of seeing a fine lady on a white horse?
Children will love to read of the stout farmer and his pretty daughter, who went trotting to market,
"Bumpety, bumpety, bump!"
Caldecott, Randolph (Illustrator). Sing a Song for Sixpence. Warne. .25
The little boy and girl king and queen are fascinating to real little boys and girls, and it is pleasant to be sure from the pictures that they liked the same things that children like to-day.
Crane, Walter (Illustrator). The Baby's Opera. Warne. 1.50
A Book of Old Rhymes with New Dresses by Walter Crane. The Music by the Earliest Masters.--Title-page.
This collection of English rhymes contains The Mulberry Bush, King Arthur, Jack and Jill, and many others equally familiar, with the accompanying music for each.
Crane, Walter (Illustrator). The Fairy Ship. Lane. .25
One of Mr. Crane's best. The duck captain and mouse sailors are utterly captivating.
"There were fifty little sailors Skipping o'er the decks; They were fifty little white mice, With rings around their necks."