Drifting Round the World[1] is a handsomely bound and illustrated volume containing the adventures of a boy by sea and land. The countries he traverses are those not often described in books of boyish travel. Starting in a Cape Ann fishing schooner for Greenland, he is shipwrecked on the coast of Labrador, contrives to reach Iceland, passes through marvellous adventures in Russia and Siberia, sails for Alaska, and at length reaches home by the overland route from San Francisco. The strange countries through which Robert, the hero of this book, travels are graphically described, and a great deal of information is conveyed in a form especially delightful to boy readers.

A large number Of the new holiday books for little folks combine amusement with instruction of one kind or another. A very interesting volume, prettily bound and profusely illustrated with portraits and other engravings, is The Story of the United States Navy,[2] by Mr. Lossing, who has devoted many years to the study of American history, and whose works on that subject are popular with readers of all ages. The present volume, the substance of which has appeared in the columns of Harper's Young People, is written especially for boys, and contains many stirring accounts of famous naval engagements, of historical war vessels, and of celebrated men whose heroic deeds add glory to the history of our country. No better reading than is contained in this book can be found for boys, as, while it is of absorbing interest, it tells the story of many noble men whose example can not fail to awaken patriotism and a desire to attain true manhood in the minds of American boys in whose hands lies the future history of the United States.

Children will always ask questions, and their natural inquisitiveness often goes beyond the knowledge of their elders. For this reason parents, as well as the youthful questioners, will extend a hearty welcome to The Young Folks' CyclopÆdia of Persons and Places,[3] which contains full information of all celebrated localities, and many biographical notices of important personages of every period. This volume, together with The CyclopÆdia of Common Things, by the same author, published a year ago, forms a library in which inquisitive little folks will find answers to their most ingenious questions.

Boys and girls who are forming social clubs, which they wish to make instructive as well as amusing, and yet are not sure of the best course to follow, should provide themselves with Stories of the Sea,[4] which they will find an excellent model. The book itself is very interesting. A party of bright young people, with an older head to guide them, meet together for Saturday afternoon talks on subjects connected with the history of the seas. Libraries are explored for accounts of famous navigators and naval heroes, and interesting readings are given from the works of Navarrete (who wrote of the voyages of Columbus), Sir Walter Raleigh, Southey, and other authors. These extracts are so fascinating that young readers are pretty sure to hunt up the books from which they are taken, in order to learn the whole of the story. Books like this do more toward cultivating a taste for good reading than volumes of advice.

A delightful little book of American natural history is Friends Worth Knowing,[5] which takes its young readers in search of snails of all kinds, into the fields and woods to find wild mice and birds, over the plains after buffalo, and tells them many curious things about the habits of different animals. Interesting illustrations and an attractive cover add to the value of this book for a pretty and cheap holiday present.

Another charming book of travel, if a summer excursion may be so called, is Aboard the Mavis,[6] in which a merry party of boys and girls cruise around the eastern end of Long Island Sound in a yacht, making occasional landings, and learning much about the early history of that portion of the country. This book is profusely illustrated and beautifully bound, and is an elegant holiday present for any girl or boy.

For very little children nothing is prettier or more attractive than the Christmas number of Our Little Ones, a monthly magazine edited by "Oliver Optic," and published by the Russell Publishing Company, of Boston.