Shanks' Pony. By Eleanor Helme. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 9s.) Seaside Scrap-Book for Boys and Girls. By Malcolm Saville. (Gramol Publications, 7s. 6d.)
I READ it at one sitting. which com menced in the uncongenial atmosphere of an underground joutney and later in spite of the distractions which were provided by the ultimate recipient of this new Eleanor Heinle pony story. I write as if I knew Eleanor Heinle and her pony stories. I did not, however, until I read this. She has written some 20 stories of ponies, other animals and about the countryside and if all are as well done as this she has made a definite contribution to books for boys and girls. There is a nice mixture of town and country interest in this story, which begins with Nobbie the potty and Davy Tucker in adventures at the last Olympia show before the war in 1939, and continues through the London blitz to evacuation and Exmoor. Cockney pearly kings and queens, Exmoor ponies and an invented section of the Home Guard all give scope and variety to a really well told tale. It would be unfair to leave even the shortest review of this story without mention of the 12 fascinating drawings by Lionel Edwards, R.L. which make the book so excellent a gift book.
WITH a beautiful coloured jacket, reminiscent of the illustrations in Alice and Wonderland. Mr. Saville's books covers the whole range of seaside lore, in poetry, prose and illustration for children. The coasts of Britain are introduced by Kipling and Belloc. We are told of seabirds. seashore vegetation and the lifeboat service, fish and animals. An extremely interesting and instructive little volume, which is designed, us few are, for children with minds.
B. P.