We have already noticed some of _Lucy S. W. Wilson's_ excellent Manuals on Nature Study, particularly the one intended for the guidance of teachers. We now have in the same line the _First Reader_ of a series on _Nature Study in Elementary Schools_ (New York: The Macmillan Company, 35 cents), a book composed of original matter and selections which has been prepared "with the desire of putting into the hands of little children literature which shall have for their minds the same interest and value that really good books have for grown-up people." But the author does not expect to accomplish this by merely giving the book to the child and leaving the reading to work out its own effect. Each of the lessons is intended to be preceded by a Nature lesson. During or after the reading a lesson should be given in the new words introduced, and afterward the lessons should be grasped for the sake of thought. The lessons, which have appropriate illustrations from Nature, present some novel features. Among them is an apparent intention in the original compositions to follow the child's method of thought. _The American Elementary Arithmetic_ (American Book Company) is intended by the author, Prof. _M. A. Bailey_, to cover the first five years' work (beginning apparently very young) in the study, and is the first of a two-book series. It is divided into two parts--for the primary and for the three succeeding grades. It contemplates the use of apparatus, consisting of paper, pasteboard, toy money, blocks, and splints. The attempt is made to give every subject twice: first in pictures, and second in the particular form of printed words. Mathematical conceptions are presented in the first chapter in the order in which they are supposed to arise in the child's consciousness--first, once or more, indefinitely; next, how many, by holding up fingers, laying down sticks, etc.; and then by words, and so on--all introductory work designed to develop step by step a mathematical vocabulary, and to form a habit of clear mathematical thinking. The laboratory plan is followed in the succeeding chapters. In the _Language Lessons_ of _J. G. Park_ (American Book Company) an arrangement of the matter is aimed at which will draw upon the student for such effort as may be expected at a given stage of advancement, which will cause him to think first and then to express his thought with clearness and precision. In the succeeding parts are given exercises on language work, with special drills upon capitalization and punctuation, inductive lessons in grammar, and, finally, lessons so graded that a student may advance very readily from them into the higher work of grammar. The study is facilitated by the use of striking illustrations as the basis of lessons.