"A Child's Book of Saints" was first published in 1898, when Mr. Canton
had already found his audience. The book is a near successor indeed to
his "W. V.: Her Book," and to "The Invisible Playmate"; and W. V. again
acts as guardian elf and guide to this new region of the child's
earthly paradise. The Saints are here treated with a simplicity that
is almost or altogether childlike, and with an unforced imagination
which is only to be learnt by becoming as a child. And this is perhaps
why, although comparatively a new book, it has the air of something
pleasantly old, and written long ago; and thus wins its way into the
children's library of old favourite authors.
Mr. Canton's published works, up to January 1906, comprise:--"A Lost
Epic, and other Poems," 1887. "The Invisible Playmate: a Story of the
Unseen," 1894, 1897. "W. V., Her Book and Various Verses," 1896. "A
Child's Book of Saints," 1898, 1902. "Children's Sayings, Edited, with
a Digression on the Small People," 1900. "The True Annals of
Fairyland" (The Reign of King Herla), 1900, &c. "In Memory of W. V."
(Winifred Vida Canton), 1901. "The Comrades: Poems, Old and New,"
1902. "What is the Bible Society?" 1903. "The Story of the Bible
Society," 1904. "A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society,"
1904. "Little Hands and God's Book: a Sketch of the Bible Society,"
1804-1904, 1905.