MISS THISTLEDOWN
"One of the queerest of the Prudy family. Read the chapter heads and you will see just how much fun there must be in it: "Fly"s Heart," "Taking a Nap," "Going to the Fair," "The Dimple Dot," "The Hole in the Home," "The Little Bachelor,"
"Fly"s Bluebeard," "Playing Mamma," "b.u.t.ter Spots," "Polly"s Secret," "The Snow Man," "The Owl and the Humming-Bird,"
"Talks of Hunting Deer," and "The Parlen Patchwork.""
FLAXIE FRIZZLE
"Flaxie Frizzle is the successor of Dotty Dimple, Little Prudy, Flyaway, and the other charming child creations of that inimitable writer for children, Sophie May. There never was a healthy, fun-loving child born into this world that, at one stage or another of its growth, wouldn"t be entertained with Sophie May"s books. For that matter, it is not safe for older folks to look into them, unless they intend to read them through. "Flaxie Frizzle" will be found as bright and pleasant reading as the others."--_Boston Journal._
FLAXIE"S DOCTOR PAPA
"Sophie May understands children. Her books are not books about them merely. She seems to know precisely how they feel, and she sets them before us, living and breathing in her pages. Flaxie Frizzle is a darling, and her sisters, brothers, and cousins are just the sort of little folks with whom careful mothers would like their boys and girls to a.s.sociate. The story is a bright, breezy, wholesome narrative, and it is full of mirth and gayety, while its moral teaching is excellent."--_Sunday-School Times._
FLAXIE"S LITTLE PITCHERS
"Little Flaxie will secure a warm place in the hearts of all at once. Here is her little picture: Her name was Mary Gray, but they called her Flaxie Frizzle, because she had light curly hair that frizzled; and she had a curly nose,--that is, her nose curled up at the end a wee bit, just enough to make it look cunning. Her cheeks were rosy red, "and she was so fat that when Mr. Snow, the postmaster, saw her, he said, "How d"ye do, Mother Bunch?"""--_Boston Home Journal._
FLAXIE"S TWIN COUSINS
"Another of those sweet, natural child-stories in which the heroine does and says just such things as actual, live, flesh children do, is the one before us. And, what is still better, each incident points a moral. The ill.u.s.trations are a great addition to the delight of the youthful reader. It is just such beautiful books as this which bring to our minds, in severe contrast, the youth"s literature of our early days--the good little boy who died young and the bad little boy who went fishing on Sunday and died in prison, etc., to the end of the threadbare, improbable chapter."--_Rural New Yorker._
FLAXIE"S KITTYLEEN
""Kittyleen"--one of the "Flaxie Frizzle" series--is a genuinely helpful as well as delightfully entertaining story. The nine-year-old Flaxie is worried, beloved, and disciplined by a bewitching three-year-old tormenter, whose accomplished mother allows her to prey upon the neighbors.
"Everybody felt the care of Mrs. Garland"s children. There were six of them, and their mother was always painting china. She did it beautifully, with graceful vines trailing over it, and golden b.u.t.terflies ready to alight on sprays of lovely flowers. Sometimes the neighbors thought it would be a fine thing if she would keep her little ones at home rather more; but if she had done that she could not have painted china.""--_Chicago Tribune._
FLAXIE GROWING UP
"No more charming stories for the little ones were ever written than those comprised in the three series which have for several years past been from time to time added to juvenile literature by Sophie May. They have received the unqualified praise of many of the most practical scholars of New England for their charming simplicity and purity of sentiment. The delightful story shows the gradual improvement of dear little Flaxie"s character under the various disciplines of child-life and the sweet influence of a good and happy home. The ill.u.s.trations are charming pictures."--_Home Journal._
PENN SHIRLEY"S BOOKS
PENN SHIRLEY"S STORIES
FOR THE LITTLE ONES
"Miss Penn Shirley is a very graceful interpreter of child-life. She thoroughly understands how to reach out to the tender chord of the little one"s feelings, and to interest her in the n.o.ble life of her young companions. Her stories are full of bright lessons, but they do not take on the character of moralizing sermons. Her keen observation and ready sympathy teach her how to deal with the little ones in helping them to understand the lessons of life. Her stories are simple and unaffected."--_Boston Herald._
THE LITTLE MISS WEEZY SERIES
Three volumes Ill.u.s.trated Boxed, each 75 cents
LITTLE MISS WEEZY
"One of the freshest and most delightful, because the most natural, of the stories of the year for children is "Little Miss Weezy," by Penn Shirley. It relates the oddities, the mischief, the adventures, and the misadventures of a tiny two-year-old maiden, full of life and spirit, and capable of the most unexpected freaks and pranks. The book is full of humor, and is written with a delicate sympathy with the feelings of children which will make it pleasing to children and parents alike. Really good child literature is not over-plenty, despite the mult.i.tude of books that come daily from the press; and it is pleasing to welcome a new author whose first volume, like this one of Penn Shirley, adds promise of future good work to actual present merit."--_Boston Courier._
LITTLE MISS WEEZY"S BROTHER
"This is a good story for young children, bringing in the same characters as "Little Miss Weezy" of last year, and continuing the history of a very natural and wide-awake family of children. The doings and the various "sc.r.a.pes" of Kirke, the brother, form a prominent feature of the book, and are such as we may see any day in the school or home life of a well-cared-for and good-intentioned little boy.
There are several quite pleasing full-page ill.u.s.trations."--_The Dial._
"We should like to see the person who thinks it "easy enough to write for children" attempt a book like the "Miss Weezy"
stories. Excepting Sophie May"s childish cla.s.sics, we don"t know of anything published as bright as the sayings and doings of the little Louise and her friends. Their pranks and capers are no more like Dotty Dimple"s than those of one bright child are like another"s, but they are just as "cute"
as those of the little folks that play in your yard or around your neighbor"s doorsteps."--_Journal of Education._
LITTLE MISS WEEZY"S SISTER
"It is one of the best of the series, and will please every child who reads it. It is brought out just at the holiday time, and is brimful of good things. Every character in it is true to nature, and the doings of a bright lot of children, in which Miss Mary Rowe figures conspicuously, will entertain grown folks as well as little ones."
"It is a thoroughly clever and delightful story of child-life, gracefully told, and charming in its blending of humor and pathos. The children in the book are real children, and the pretty plot through which they move is fully in harmony with the characters. The young ones will find it a storehouse of pleasant things pleasantly related, and a book that will appeal at once to their sentiments and sympathies."--_Boston Gazette._
"A book that will hold the place of honor on the nursery bookshelf until it falls to pieces from much handling is "Little Miss Weezy"s Sister," a simple, yet absorbing story of children who are interesting because they are so real. It is doing scant justice to say for the author, Penn Shirley, that the annals of child-life have seldom been traced with more loving care."--_Boston Times._
Sophie May"s Complete Works
LITTLE FOLKS" BOOKS
_LITTLE PRUDY"S CHILDREN_ Wee Lucy Wee Lucy"s Secret Jimmy Boy Jimmy, Lucy, and All Kyzie Dunlee Lucy in Fairyland