_Tales of Giants from Brazil_, by _Elsie Spicer Eells_ (Dodd, Mead & Company). These adaptations from the collections of Romero and others are an excellent introduction to the Portuguese folk lore of Brazil. They are told by Mrs. Eells in a simple style which preserves their folk quality without any attempt to refine upon it. _Cheerful—By Request_, by _Edna Ferber_ (Doubleday, Page & Co.). Miss Ferber is at her best in such a story as “The Tough Old Dog.” In this story she has not sentimentalized her substance, but has accepted the sentimental values inherent in the theme and chronicled them faithfully. Such a story as this is the product of regionalism in its best sense. In other stories in this volume Miss Ferber’s characterization is of varying degrees of success. In the best of these stories her characters are individualized; in those which are less successful they remain types. But the volume is an important addition to the year’s books by virtue of three or four stories included in it. _Edgewater People_, by _Mary E. Wilkins Freeman_ (Harper & Brothers). While this volume does not as a whole represent Mrs. Freeman’s art at its best, it contains two fine stories in “The Ring With the Green Stone” and “A Retreat to the Goal,” while “The Old Man of the Field” has much of Mrs. Freeman’s familiar charm. These stories have the unity of New England village life. _Great Ghost Stories_, edited by _Joseph Lewis French_ (Dodd, Mead & Company). This collection is fairly representative of the best ghost stories that can be gathered, though one misses “The Canterville Ghost” and “The Apparition of Mrs. Veal,” as well as any representation of Poe, de Maupassant, or Bierce. But it does contain twelve stories which may fairly be regarded as classics in their field, and there is not one of them which is not of absorbing interest. _Mimi_, by _J. U. Giesy_ (Harper & Brothers). This novelette is an idyl of the Latin quarter of Paris during the first year of the Great War. Written in the tradition of Murger, it has his qualities and defects. It is slightly overstressed and somewhat carelessly written, but it has the human touch and good characterization. I commend it to the reader for its quiet emotional appeal. _Hindu Fairy Tales_, by _Florence Griswold_ (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.). These fairy tales retold for children from the “Jataka” are narrated in a simple style which is unpretentious but effective. The legends upon which they are based are among the oldest of the human race, but they retain much of their freshness in this version. _Uncle Remus Returns_, by _Joel Chandler Harris_ (Houghton, Mifflin Co.). This volume falls into two parts. It includes six new folk stories by Uncle Remus as told to the son of the little boy who was the eager listener in the earlier volumes. These stories rank with the best of their predecessors. To these have been added five sketches from newspaper files, which are purely ephemeral.