Cornelia Meigs

“ Elizabeth’s active interest in her “fambly” leads her to the doing of unheard of things in their behalf. These experiences and adventures, of which not the least appealing is that growing out of her secret alliance with a fairy king who was to turn stones into gold when his wand, which unfortunately was mislaid, should be recovered, comprise a volume which is different from the average child story.
It is full of whimsical humor and of the sort of entertainment which girls in their teens—and younger and older perhaps—find most satisfying. ”

“ The hero is a lad of sixteen who is foiled in his plans to go camping, and forced," as he puts it, “to spend the summer on a little two by four island with an old maid aunt.” But adventure unrolls before him and he does not have at all the stupid and uninteresting time which he had anticipated. Quite the contrary, he encounters excitement enough for any red-blooded American youth. ”

“ Darrow describe the great inventions of man, but he applies the principles underlying them to simple apparatus which the boy can construct for himself. The aeroplane, the balloon, the various kinds of engines, the telephone, the telegraph, the submarine, the telescope—all these and many more come in for consideration, followed in each case with simple experiments which the reader can make for himself, and in many cases with explicit directions for the construction of an adaptation of the machine or instrument. ”