This is styled by the publisher "The Child's _Annual;_" we do not think
reasonably so, since instruction is suited for all times. It is a
tolerably thick volume, and contains the _Easies_ of Grammar, Geography,
Arithmetic, Natural History, Punctuation, History, Poetry, Music, and
Dancing; with outlines of Agriculture, Anatomy, Architecture, Astronomy,
Botany, and other branches of science and knowledge--a Chronology and
description of the London public buildings. The contents, to be sure, are
multifarious; but the book is we think made of a series of books to be
purchased separately. Every page has a coloured cut of a very gay order.
Cottages have yellow roofs and pink doors; and shopkeepers are dressed in
crimson and orange. Some of the grammatical illustrations are droll: a
heavy old fellow, cross-legged, with his hands folded on a stick is
_myself_; Punch is an _active verb_; a wedding might have illustrated the
conjunction; four in hand is a preposition. In punctuation, a child asking
what o'clock it is, illustrates a note of interrogation. We could have
supplied the editor with the Colon: a little girl who had much difficulty
in understanding its use, one day complained that a pain in her stomach
was as bad as a colon. The pictures in Geography are not so good as they
might have been; and it would have been easy to give correct outlines of
animals, since others mislead children. Music made easy is better, as are
Steps to Dancing. The Chronology is faulty and ill-adapted for children:
what do the little dears want to know of the sale of Cobbett's Register,
or Mr. Fletcher and Miss Dick. There are certain things which children
should know, and others which they should not hear of. Show them as many
of the virtues of mankind as you please: prepare the soil well, and there
will be less chance of vicious weeds. Altogether this book merits
recommendation. It is nicely bound, as the Guinea Annual folks say, partly
in _Arabesque._
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