NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

BABY DAYS, a selection of Songs, Stories and Pictures for Very Little Folks, with an introduction by the Editor of ST. NICHOLAS, and 300 illustrations.  Scribner & Co.—­This large and very handsome book has been made up from ST. NICHOLAS, and nearly all from the pages devoted to the “Very Little Folks,” and although the readers of this magazine know that there have been many good things in that department, they can have no idea, until they see it gathered together in this book, what a wealth of pictures, stories, funny little poems and jingles have been offered the little ones in ST. NICHOLAS.  To children who have never read ST. NICHOLAS, this book, with its three hundred pictures,—­to say nothing of its other contents,—­will be a revelation; to children who take the magazine, it will bring up many pleasant recollections of good things they have enjoyed.

ABOUT OLD STORY-TELLERS—­of How and When they Lived, and what Stories they Told.  By Donald G. Mitchell.  Published by Scribner, Armstrong & Co.—­When any one comes late to dinner nothing can be kinder than to bring back for him some of the good things which may have been removed before his arrival,—­and something very like this has here been done by Mr. Mitchell for the boys and girls who came into this world too late to hear in their original freshness all the good stories that were the delight of their fathers and mothers when they were children.  And these fine old stories are all so nicely warmed up (if we may so express it) by the author of the book, and so daintily and attractively presented to our boys and girls, that some older folks may be in doubt whether or not they would have lost anything in this respect if they, too, had happened to come a little late to the feast furnished by Defoe, Dean Swift, Miss Edgeworth, Oliver Goldsmith, the man who wrote the “Arabian Nights,” and other good old story-tellers.

Our little housekeepers, especially those who have put into practice Marion Harland’s admirable recipes which we gave in our third and fourth volumes, will be delighted with a little book published by Jansen, McClurg & Co., of Chicago.  It is called SIX LITTLE COOKS; or, Aunt Jane’s Cooking-Class,—­and, while it is really an interesting narrative in itself, it delightfully teaches girls just how to follow practically its many recipes.  The only fault we have to find with it is the great preponderance of cakes and pastry and sweets over healthful dishes and the more solid kinds of cookery.

A very pleasant little book is THE WINGS OF COURAGE, adapted from the French for American boys and girls by Marie E. Field, and published by the Putnams.  The three stories which make up the book will delight fairy-loving boys and girls.  They are illustrated by Mrs. Lucy G. Morse, the author of “The Ash-Girl,” well known to ST. NICHOLAS readers.  The pictures all are pretty, but to our mind the best of all is “Margot and Neva,” illustrating “Queen Coax.”