EDITOR'S NOTE:

Book Reviews

So many books are sent to this department of EDUCATION that it is impossible to review them all. Naturally we feel under obligation to give preference to the books of those publishing houses which more or less frequently use our advertising pages. Outside of the limitations thus set, we shall usually be able and glad to mention by title, authors, publisher and price, such books as are sent to us for this purpose. More elaborate notices will necessarily be conditional upon our convenience and the character of the books themselves.

A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By S. E. Forman, Ph.D. The Century Company.

This is a revision of one of the best histories of the United States on the market. It is intended for seventh and eighth grades and Junior High Schools. Americanism is stressed from the first chapter to the last. Much attention is given to industrial growth. The westward movement is told in a fascinating way. The European background and recent happenings and tendencies in the twentieth century are interestingly described.

There is an "atmosphere" to this book which is highly stimulating to imagination and interest. It is fully illustrated with numerous portraits, pictures, maps, etc., and abundantly supplied with tables of questions, review and reading references, appendices, etc.

EVERYDAY CHEMISTRY. By Alfred Vivian Dean of the College of Agriculture of the Ohio State University. The American Book Company. Price $1.64.

The author has been very happy in his choice of a title for his book. It allures instead of repelling the student or reader. It sounds and is practical instead of dry theory. Yet the treatment of the subject is in no sense shallow and unscientific. "The text," says the author in the Preface, "follows a middle course, and while the outstanding feature is its treatment of the applications of chemistry, inorganic and organic, the presentation is based on a brief study of the elements and their important compounds and reactions." The aim is to make the student understand the phenomena of daily life. An excellent, interesting and practical textbook for high schools.

THE STORY OF LIBERTY. By James Baldwin. The American Book Company. Price 88 cents.

A very timely and desirable book for American school boys and school girls, teaching them and all prospective Americans the meaning and missions of political liberty. It will fit into the Americanization

movement which, since the World War, has been so much in evidence. The book is made up of attractive short chapters and may well be used for supplementary reading in the grades.

A GREEK GRAMMAR FOR COLLEGES. By Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D., Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, Harvard University. American Book Company. Price $3.20.

Professor Smyth is the editor of an extensive series of Greek Grammars and Greek texts for schools and colleges, and is a leading authority in this field, in America. The present volume has the same general plan as his Greek Grammar for Schools and Colleges. It presents the main facts of Attic speech during the classical period in a descriptive rather than historical way-with references to the main features of the literary dialects. It is a book of nearly 800 pages and will give the student an adequate knowledge and training to enable him to appreciate the beauty and significance of the literature of Ancient Greece and the influence of this cultured people's thought and deeds upon the history of all mankind.

DANNY AGAIN. By V. C. Barclay. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price $1.25. Boys-red-blooded ones with plenty of imagination and "pep",-will like this book and its predecessor "Danny, the Detective." Both are imaginative stories about a London boy who caught German spies and their wireless messages and carrier pigeons, did various other smart stunts and received a medal and a check for $500.00 from the Government. Sometimes we wonder how the boys of today will compare at fifty with the men who today are fifty and who were brought up on the more serious literary diet of the past. Watch out, boys, and wire us, if,— post mortem,- -we are assigned to "Mars"!

ESSENTIALS OF TYPEWRITING, A SHORT COURSE IN TOUCH TYPEWRITING. By Rose L. Fritz, Edward H. Eldridge, Ph.D., and Gertrude W. Craig. The American Book Company.

This is an admirable presentation of the essentials of expert typewriting, in compact, definite form embodying the latest scientific theory and practice, and especially adapted to the needs of brief business courses in Business Schools and Colleges, Junior High Schools and Evening Schools. The first of the three authors named above is the winner of forty official typewriting contests. She knows how to teach others as well as to herself achieve.

AMERICAN PRIVATE SCHOOLS. Sargent's Handbook Series, 1920. An Annual Survey. Fifth Edition, Porter E. Sargent, Boston, Mass.

A useful volume, listing a very large number of private schools and academies and giving facts, statistics and other items of interest about them; also summer camps, schools for the deficient, technological and trade schools, etc. Teachers, parents, statisticians, publishers and others having trade or other interests along educational lines, will find this book extremely useful. It is a book of 751 pages.

HORTICULTURE.

(Farm Life Text Series). By Kary Cadmus Davis, Ph.D., 287 illustrations. J. B. Lippincott Company. Net, $1.75.

An excellent text for high and normal schools, giving both theoretical and practical instruction in gardening, orcharding and small fruit culture. Nothing seems to have been omitted and everything is up to date as to information and method. The volume will be of great value not alone as a text for classroom use but also to the increasingly large numbers of people who have realized their long cherished ambition to own their own homes and who will feel the need now of instruction and aid in making them attractive and productive.

TEACHING HOME ECONOMICS. By Anna M. Cooley, B. S., Cora M. Winchell, B. S., Wilhelmina H. Spohr, M. A., and Josephine A. Marshall, B. S., all of Teachers College, Columbia University. The Macmillan Company. Price $1.80.

In a very thorough mannner this volume covers the household arts from various points of view. Every girl needs such instruction as is here given to make her life worth while whether she be a practical housekeeper, a mother, or following any one of a dozen or more vocations, all more or less closely related to home and family life. This book will find its primary use as a textbook in normal schools, colleges and high schools. Wherever, especially, young women are in training for teachers of home economics it will be found to be one of the most complete and scientific treatises on this subject. The outlines and suggestions for study will prove very helpful. Everywhere there is in evidence a real respect for the simpler methods of the home life of the past, while the marvelous expansion and diversification of the life of women in these later times is viewed as requiring a broader educational foundation on scientific facts and principles.

HEALTH BY STUNTS. By Captain N. H. Pearl, U. S. Army and Captain H. E. Brown, U. S. Army. Macmillan, Price $1.30.

The authors have found by careful personal investigation that the play of boys and girls has been on the decline. Boys have been spending

a great deal of time which used to be spent in athletics, at moving picture shows to their distinct loss, at least from the physical standpoint. "Modern conditions," they say, have not only made boys inactive but have made people of all ages inactive. Under such conditions chronic disease is rapidly on the increase. This little book will distinctly aid in stemming this degeneracy. It describes both pictorially and in clear, forceful English a great variety of stunts that young folks of both sexes can practice, without apparatus,—to their great advantage as to health, grace and physical efficiency.

THE WORST BOYS IN TOWN,-and Other Addresses to Young Men and Women, Boys and Girls. By James L. Hill, D. D. The Stratford Company.

The author has been a favorite speaker at Christian Endeavor gatherings and other religious or semi-religious meetings. He has a very offhand style and always gets the close attention of his audiences and says that which is worth while. Something is always lost when a good speaker descends to cold, lifeless paper and printer's ink. However, these addresses are well worth preserving in this permanent form and the editor and reviewer, having known the man, is particularly pleased heartily to commend his book.

ARMENIA AND THE ARMENIANS. By Kevork Aslan. The Macmillan Company. Price $1.25.

This book is translated from the French by Pierre Crabites. There is a preface on the evolution of the Armenian question, by the translator. It is a timely volume and should add to the world-wide tide of sympathy for the down-trodden but unconquerable race whose history it relates.

Periodical Notes.

The Scientific American Monthly in its new dress presents a fine appearance. The number for May has an exhaustive article on "The Fear of Being Buried Alive," which gives account of the principal reliable tests for actual death. In The Century for May Rev. Samuel McChord Crothers gives a splendid and timely account of the Puritans and Pilgrims, with some discriminating suggestions as to their civic and religious, or political and theo logical views and influence. An interesting article on "The Whipporwill of New England'' is found in Nature Study for April, which will interest bird study teachers and pupils in our schools, and all bird lovers. "The Experiences of the Medical Department at Nitro, W. Virginia," is interestingly related by J. A. Watkins, M. D., in Modern Medicine for April. In The Outlook for April 21 Sherman Rogers, under the title "Hello, Central," gives most interesting notes about the faithfulness, efficiency and heroism of the telephone girls. Every one should read this article. It will greatly decrease our frequent outbursts of impatience when using the "phone."

The Perry Pictures Company

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