Games

By Jessie H. Bancroft, M.P.E. The Macmillan Company, New York. $4.00. School Edition, $3.00.

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'O THE MANY recreation workers, physical educators, club leaders, teachers and others who have used Miss Bancroft's book on games for so many years which so long has been an invaluable guide to workers in many fields, the announcement that the revised edition of the book is ready for distribution will come as welcome news. The changes in the book consist mainly of additions, new games having been added to each section. New research in foreign countries has resulted in the inclusion of a number of games which did not appear in the original edition. The majority of games presented have been newly written and brought up to date with official rules. As a result, the volume-and the book contains about 700 pages-now covers a much larger amount of material and a wider range of interest than in its original form, while all that has been most useful has been retained. The index has a valuable feature in that it indicates the grades and the ages at which each game may be appropriately used.

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NE OF THE highly stimulating and inviting opportunities before adult education is the fostering of this newly found joy in the creative arts: dancing for the overwrought business woman; dramatics for the ingrown store clerk; etching for the financier; drawing for the ticker-tape mechanic, and so on down the long line of adults. We are beginning to have a strong suspicion that within every normal human being, there lies creative ability that needs only a chance to flower." This is the conclusion of the authors of this volume after four years of experience in conducting the Boston Center for Adult Education, which has drawn nearly two thousand persons from all walks of life to its classes, craft shops, and discussions. This book describes the factors that make for success in the enterprise.

The principles and methods that were applied in breaking down prejudices, of enlisting the interest of the com

munity, of planning programs, and in selecting leadership are described in objective fashion. The chapter on analysis of the community is of special interest. Almost half of the book is given to a description of methodhow to use group discussion, the public conversation, the panel, the lectures, the forum, and the symposium. While emphasizing the educational value of the program center, the authors assert that "as yet, adult education is considered by most people to be a kind of elevated recreation."

Europe at Play

By L. H. Weir. A. S. Barnes & Company, New York. $10.00.

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'HE DEVELOPMENT of recreation in Europe in the last two decades has gone on with astonishing rapidity although the beginnings of many manifestations of it hark back for a much longer period. Some of the developments in the small garden movement, in physical recreation activities and areas, in forest recreation, nature instruction and facilities and Youth Hostel movement have been traced in this volume by L. H. Weir. As a Fellow of the Oberlaender Trust during the summer of 1933 and again for almost the entire year of 1936, Mr. Weir studied recreation organization, facilities and activities in a number of European countries. The study is by no means complete, and the author asks that it be considered as a preliminary exploration only.

Of special interest to recreation workers is the chapter on the Cultural Use of Leisure with its description of municipally and stated owned theaters, of folk music and dances and of arts and handcrafts. A number of the special leisure-time organizations operating in several of the European countries are described.

The book is profusely illustrated by beautiful photographs.

Out of Doors With Birds

By Emma F. Byers. The Womans Press, New York City. $1.00.

Leadership in directing such activities "is a high calling requiring experience in group directing, ability to organize, initiative and ingenuity, buoyant personality, acquaintance with the whole field of crafts, the fine arts, games, sports and entertainment features, and an educational background of sociology, pedagogy, government, biology, psychology, guidance and physical education, Perfection cannot be expected but the men and women required for recreational directorship must be able to manage a program unobstrusively yet certainly; must be attractive to young and old; must possess teaching ability and the capacity to respect all types of personalities. Neither playgrounds nor indoor programs can operate safely and successfully without such leadership."

These statements constitute the heart of the findings submitted to the American Youth Commission on the subject of recreation. The findings were based on federal, state and municipal youth surveys and censuses published in fifteen different states. The studies cover population trends among youth, their employment status, youth and schools, youth and health, rural youth, colored youth, youth and the home, and finally youth and the larger citizenship.

The problems of youth outlined in this volume are staggering. Only sixty percent of all employable young people, 16 to 24, have been able to find work. Their median wage is $15. a week and large numbers of them work without pay. One out of eight finds his way to a state hospital. On the farm there are two million more youth than are needed to grow commercial agricultural products. A million and a half who would normally be married have been forced to postpone that event. Youth neglects the church because its message to him is not a vital one. Negro youth above all faces the most difficult handicaps, economical and educational, and is threatened by the most serious health hazards. In the face of these problems youth asks for more adequate recreational facilities. In a rural community in Wisconsin the first desire expressed by youth was for recreation even "before more work with pay." In Detroit more than one-fourth of the youths studied said that recreation was their most difficult problem. Ten surveys in the various parts of the United States show that the recreational picture is the same everywhere.

This book is a real challenge to recreation leaders and is deserving of careful reading. It should get into the hands of committeemen, city officials and especially those lay persons of whom there are still a few who feel that the recreation job is done.

Books on Handcraft.

The Harter Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio.
Each $.10 plus $.10 postage.

Recreation workers and other leaders who may not be familiar with the Harter publications will want to know that there are available a number of booklets on handcraft prepared by Edwin T. Hamilton, well-known author of a number of books on handcraft. Among these are Making 30 Kites That Fly, with full directions and diagrams; Coping Saw Carpentry, with directions for making a large number of household articles, and Building Model Airplanes That Fly. These exceedingly practical booklets and many others on subjects of interest to recreation leaders are available.

Reading for Fun.

By Eloise Ramsey. National Council of Teachers of English, 211 West 68th Street, Chicago. $.20. This list of books for boys and girls in the elementary school was prepared for the National Council of Teachers of English with the cooperation of its Committee on Recreational Reading for Elementary Schools. Each page offers a short list of books about something in which boys

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and girls are interested. Many new books are introduced or old favorites appear, and all the books included have illustrations. The books are classified under the following headings: Good Times at Home; City, Country and Travel; Animals Everywhere; People and Things We Like; Old Tales and Brave Deeds; Magic and Poetry; Our World-Today and Long Ago; America and Her Neighbors; Festivals and Holidays. The attractive illustrations which have been used and the effective way in which the lists are presented cannot fail to make their appeal to the children for whom these lists have been prepared.

Surveys of Youth.

By D. L. Harley. The American Council on Education, 744 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C. $.50. To help meet the need for definite information on the present condition of American youth, the American Youth Commission has brought together, for the benefit of the individual and group wanting to know what studies of youth have been made in recent years, some significant facts about youth surveys made in the United States since 1931. It identifies and briefly describes 166 surveys, national, regional, state and local, classifies them, provides analytical aids which will enable particular groups of surveys to be readily isolated, and tells how to obtain copies of reports.

Dancing Dolls.

Add-a-Puppet Play Series. By Hamburg Puppet
Guild, Hamburg, New York. Samuel French, New
York. $.75.

In this collection of seven puppet plays for children the plays offered are simple and easily produced. While some of the characters are used in more than one of the plays, there is enough variety to maintain interest. The foreword contains some suggestions of value to beginning puppeteers. There is no royalty for amateur use.

Fundamental Handball.

By Bernath E. Phillips. A. S. Barnes and Company,
New York. $1.50.

This book may be used not only by handball novices but by more experienced players and instructors. The material is presented clearly and intelligibly, as are the pictures and diagrams. The book is divided into six parts: An Introduction to the Sport; to the Novice; the Fundamentals; the Shots; to the More Advanced Player; to the Instructor. There is an appendix containing official rules. The attractive presentation of practical material makes this book a valuable one for gymnasium instructors as well as for handball players.

Growing Up with Music.

By Beatrice Perham. Neil A. Kjos Music Company,
Chicago. $.25 each.

A series of very attractively printed and illustrated booklets for children's reading, each one of which is in happy keeping with the present school emphasis on "units" of study. For younger children Jerry and Janet on the Farm is a delightful tale interspersed with related songs well suited to the children. Also for younger children are Come, Let Us Make a Garden and Songs of Travel and Transport, the latter, good also for somewhat older children, taking one from hiking through sailing, skiing with the Swiss, horseback-riding with the Cossacks, going about in a jinrikisha with the Japanese, in a sled with Eskimos, to travel in a street car, a train and in an airplane, with one or more songs for each sort of transportation. For older children are two books about the singers of the Middle Ages, one about The Troubadours, and the other about the Minstrels and MinnesingThere is also The Music of Early Greece rightly said to be "a sincere effort to give the young student some feeling for, and an understanding of, what was once a

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great factor in the life of a great people." Last in the series is Christmas: Its Music, Origins, and Traditions, which is the most attractive and revealing little book about Christmas that we know.

All these books have been compiled with excellent taste and with an eagerness and lightness of spirit that make them well suited to any play group of children as well as a school group. Indeed, they are better suited to a group at play than to a group in the common overregimented sort of school.-A. D. Zanzig.

Christmas Carols.

By Hendrik Willem Van Loon and Grace Castagnetta.
Simon and Schuster, New York. $2.00.

Hendrik Willem Van Loon, who loves to sing and play Christmas carols, has drawn or painted the delightful illustrations which accompany the twenty favorite carols comprising this attractive book dedicated to Annie Carroll Moore of the New York Public Library. Grace Castagnetta has made the piano arrangements.

Development of a Leisure-Time Program in Small Cities and Towns.

By Ella Gardner. Bureau Publication No. 241. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. $.05. In this thirteen page booklet Miss Gardner outlines the steps involved in initiating a community leisure-time program, suggests briefly standards for playgrounds and other recreational facilities, and offers a bibliography.

Health Ways.

By Philip L. Riley and Harriet V. Fitchpatrick. The Harter Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio. $.20. Here are two books on health prepared for little children. Young children, the authors point out, are not interested in health as such but they are interested in doing things and are very curious about everything new. To direct this natural curiosity and to provide an incentive to activities in ways which will be beneficial to the child, the authors have prepared a series of books illustrating by word and picture simple activities. Book 1-Part 1 is entitled First Steps to Health. Book 2-Part 1, In School, Ideals with the life of the child in school. Other books in preparation are Health Ways at Home and A Trip to the Farm.

Grow Up Emotionally and Have Fun!

By J. George Frederick. The Beaux Arts Press,
New York. $2.00.

This book is built on the model of the author's first book, What Is Your Emotional Age? which has enlivened thousands of parties and social gatherings for the past few years. Fifty-eight interesting and amusing tests are offered, and in trying them you will learn much about yourself and other people. But the book also contains some serious advice. For example, the chapter entitled "Your Emotional Nature Versus Your Mind" contains some sound advice about the place and importance of the emotions.

Handbook on Social Work Engineering.

By June Purcell Guild and Arthur Alden Guild.
Published by Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond,
Virginia. $1.50.

This manual is based largely on the authors' experiences in Richmond, Virginia, one of the few cities, according to Allen T. Burns in his introduction, which has contributed more to support its human services each year of the depression than was given previously. In the handbook a study of problems rather than agencies is advocated and its purpose is to suggest a method of measuring with some approximation of accuracy local social work problems and, if need be, increasing public support for social and health work. In a chapter on An Informal Educational and Recreational Program some searching

questions are asked regarding the recreation program and the danger is pointed out of establishing a program without a thorough knowledge of problems and needs. The Recreation Council is advocated as a means of promoting a sound program.

The Recreation "Kit"-No. 43.

Cooperative Recreation Service, Delaware, Ohio. $.25.

Three folk plays comprise the contents of the latest issue of the Kit. These plays, produced at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, North Carolina, are "The Old Woman and the Peddler," "Get Up and Bar the Door," and "Haste to the Wedding." Permission to produce the plays must be secured in writing from the Folk School and no royalty will be charged if such permission is secured.

Color Miniatures.

Art Education Press, Inc., 424 Madison Avenue,
New York.

Recreation workers, teachers, club leaders and all interested in developing in children an appreciation of the best in art will want to know of these full color prints in miniature size. The series includes all representative schools of painting, with modern art works interspersed with those of the old masters. There are now 270 color miniatures measuring approximately 31⁄2 by 41⁄2 inches which may be secured at one cent each. For the complete set there is a special price of $2.60 postpaid.

Just For Fun.

Texts and Tunes by Alice Keith. Paull-Pioneer
Music Corporation, New York. $.25.

This little "Play and Sing" book contains simple songs and melodies for little children based on their interests and activities. The illustrations alone make it a fascinating booklet for children.

Officers and Directors of the National Recreation Association

OFFICERS

JOHN H. FINLEY, President
JOHN G. WINANT, First Vice-President
ROBERT GARRETT, Second Vice-President
GUSTAVUS T. KIRBY, Treasurer
HOWARD S. BRAUCHER, Secretary

DIRECTORS

F. GREGG BEMIS, Boston, Mass.
MRS. EDWARD W. BIDDLE, Carlisle, Pa.
MRS. WILLIAM BUTTERWORTH, Moline, Ill.
HENRY L. CORBETT, Portland, Ore.

MRS. ARTHUR G. CUMMER, Jacksonville, Fla.

F. TRUBEE DAVISON, Locust Valley, L. I., N. Y.
JOHN H. FINLEY, New York, N. Y.
ROBERT GARRETT, Baltimore, Md.
AUSTIN E. GRIFFITHS, Seattle, Wash.
MRS. MELVILLE H. HASKELL, Tucson, Ariz.
MRS. CHARLES V. HICKOX, Michigan City, Ind.
MRS. MINA M. EDISON-HUGHES, West Orange, N. J
GUSTAVUS T. KIRBY, New York, N. Y.

H. MCK. LANDON, Indianapolis, Ind.
MRS. CHARLES D. LANIER, Greenwich, Conn.
ROBERT LASSITER, Charlotte, N. C.

J. H. MCCURDY, Springfield, Mass.
OTTO T. MALLERY, Philadelphia, Pa.
WALTER A. MAY, Pittsburgh, Pa.
CARL E. MILLIKEN, Augusta, Me.

MRS. OGDEN L. MILLS, Woodbury, N. Y.
MRS. JAMES W. WADSWORTH, Washington, D. C.

J. C. WALSH, New York, N. Y.

FREDERICK M. WARBURG, New York, N. Y.
JOHN G. WINANT, Concord, N. H.