The Riverside Library for Young People.

A Series of Volumes devoted to History, Biography,
Mechanics, Travel, Natural History, and Adventure. With
Maps, Portraits, etc., where needed for fuller illustration
of the volume. Each, uniform, strongly bound
in cloth, 16mo, 200-250 pages, 75 cents.

1. The War of Independence.
By John Fiske. With Maps.

2. George Washington: An Historical Biography.
By Horace E. Scudder. With Portrait and Illustrations.

3. Birds through an Opera Glass.
By Florence A. Merriam. Illustrated.

4. Up and Down the Brooks.
By Mary E. Bamford. Illustrated.

5. Coal and the Coal Mines.
By Homer Greene. Illustrated.

6. A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory.
By Lucy Larcom.

7. Java: The Pearl of the East.
By Mrs. S. J. Higginson. With a Map.

8. Girls and Women.
By E. Chester.

(Others in preparation.)

MESSRS. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY publish, under the above title, a series of books designed especially for boys and girls who are laying the foundation of private libraries. The books in this series are not ephemeral publications, to be read hastily and quickly forgotten, both the authors and the subjects treated indicate that they are books to last.

The great subjects of History, Biography, Mechanics, Travel, Natural History, Adventure, and kindred themes form the principal portion of the library. The authors engaged are for the most part writers who already have won attention, but the publishers give a hospitable reception to all who may have something worth saying to the young, and the power to say it in good English and in an attractive manner. The books in this Library are intended particularly for young people, but they will not be written in what has been well called the Childese dialect.

The books are illustrated whenever the subject treated needs illustration; history and travel are accompanied by maps; history and biography by portraits; but the aim is to make the accompaniments to the text real additions.

The publishers hope to have the active coÖperation of parents, teachers, superintendents, and all who are interested in the formation of good taste in reading among young people.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY,
4 Park Street, Boston; 11 East 17th Street, New York.

Critical Notices.

FISKE'S War of Independence.

John Fiske's book, "The War of Independence," is a miracle. I can never understand why, when a perfect literary work is issued, all the critics do not clap their hands! I think it must be because they never read the books. This story of the war is such a book, brilliant and effective beyond measure. It should be read by every voter in the United States. It is a statement that every child can comprehend, but that only a man of consummate genius could have written.—Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, in the Springfield Republican.

The story of the Revolution, as Mr. Fiske tells it, is one of surpassing interest. His treatment is a marvel of clearness and comprehensiveness; discarding non-essential details, he selects with a fine historic instinct the main currents of history, traces them with the utmost precision, and tells the whole story in a masterly fashion. His little volume will be a text-book for older quite as much as for young readers.—Christian Union.

SCUDDER'S George Washington.

Mr. Scudder's biography of Washington is a fit companion volume for Mr. Fiske's little history. It tells the story of the great patriot, soldier, and statesman with simplicity, sincerity, and completeness. It is not too much to say of these books that they ought to be put into the hands of every boy and girl, not only because of that which they contain, but because of the soundness of their form.—Christian Union (New York).

Mr. Horace E. Scudder has executed a difficult task in a praiseworthy manner. In spite of the innumerable lives of the first President, who shall say anything new of his career and paint it in fresh colors? Mr. Scudder has been able to do this, and his book will be welcomed by old and young.—Boston Beacon.

MERRIAM'S Birds through an Opera Glass.

A capital text-book of the right sort for young observers of Natural History. By text-book we do not mean a formal school-book, but a book with a clear method, a capital style, and adequate information. This little volume describes all the birds to be found in our fields and woods; describes them, not as an ornithological treatise, but as a keen-eyed and thoroughly interesting observer would describe them. Such a volume ought to be the companion of every intelligent boy and girl during the summer.—Christian Union (New York).

The book is deserving of praise for its eminently practical nature. The hints to observers with which it opens, the appendix giving the classification of birds by general family characteristics, by localities, by colors, by song, the books of reference, and the index, all combine to make the book extremely useful.—The Academy (Syracuse).

GREENE'S Coal and the Coal Mines.

In the vehicle of the author's terse, vigorous language, the reader is then taken down into the subterranean passages, where he is almost made to see the operations of mining the fuel, so vividly and picturesquely is the information conveyed. Interesting and valuable statistics are quoted, amusing incidents are related, entertaining descriptions and wise suggestions are given and made, and, taken altogether, though dealing largely with what is essentially dry in its nature, the book makes good reading for the old as well as the young.—The American (Philadelphia).

All kinds of science and scientific information is, at this day, brought down from its high points to the lower and more even ground of the young student's understanding. This book is a good example of that truth. The exhaustive theme of coal and coal mining is made so concise and simple that a child can thoroughly comprehend it. The author covers the ground of study in a simple and interesting way, and furnishes illustrations to make the words clearer.—New York School Journal.

MISS BAMFORD'S Up and Down the Brooks.

This is a book which it is a pleasure to read and a duty to praise. Miss Bamford tells us of her rambles by the California brookside, and her acquaintances made there; of their habits, their transformations, death and burial, or happier release after a period of observation by the captor.... On the whole, we do not know among recent books any more likely to give pleasure to the nature-loving boy or girl, or more calculated to stimulate the taste for healthy recreation and good reading.—The Nation (New York).

A charming book, full of most fascinating details in the lives of little-known insects, and opening a rich field of study and interest, accessible to every country child. It cannot be too highly recommended to parents. The author has sought out her own subjects, and studied for herself, and her results are delightful.... We would put the book into the hands of every girl and boy.—Epoch (New York).

MISS LARCOM'S Recollections of Girlhood.

Its unaffected, sincere, pungent style is refreshing indeed after the introspection, the smirking self-consciousness, the willful mannerisms, which make of so many autobiographies little more than a pose before a mirror. More than all, as a vivid, tenderly sympathetic yet uncompromisingly truthful picture of phases of New England life, in home and at work, which have now practically ceased to be, the book has a permanent, one may say an historical value.—Boston Advertiser.

The story is one that will aid other girls to make the most of their opportunities, and help them in understanding the real value of life. It is a book that every girl will be better for having read.—Boston Herald.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY,

4 Park St., Boston; 11 East 17th St., New York.