Browne's first five books were published in 1884, when she was twenty, by Cassell, the publisher where both her father and brother worked.
Chats About Germany was mentioned among forthcoming publications in September 1884. It was one of a series from Cassell of books for young readers about other countries, at a time when "everybody nowadays is expected to know a little about German and much about Germany." It was well received, and was described by reviewers as "a pleasantly chatty volume, not too learned", in which "all manner of odds and ends of information are brought together, and the simplicity and ease of the author's narrative should make her work popular with children."
Chats About Germany was re-issued in 1889, when one reviewer considered it "perhaps the best of the series", and described Maggie Browne as "so able a writer".
Little Mothers And Their Children and
Our School Day Hours (both 1884) were two of the four volumes, printed separately, that comprised Cassell's
Album for Home, School and Play. Contemporary reviews praised her "lively and imaginative work. The author is to be most heartily congratulated on having made the very most of a novel idea. She has written a real fairy book, such as ought to make her popular in all the nurseries of the country ..... they will ask Miss Maggie Browne for more." The
Gloucester Journal described the author as "a young lady who is known and loved in the world of juvenile literature", who "succeeds where others may fail because she is in thorough sympathy both with her task and with her young readers", Some reviewers recognised it as "a clever story of the "
Alice in Wonderland" type in which Miss Maggie Browne has shown a keen appreciation of the likings of children... There is much genuine humour in this brightly-woven tale..."
Lewis Carroll reportedly owned a copy "as part of his collection of 'books of the
Alice type'." Browne followed
Wanted, a King with
Pleasant Work for Busy Fingers, which appeared in 1881. As
The Graphic pointed out, "Not all children love reading as mothers and nurses find to their cost when a wet day keeps the little ones prisoners. To solve their perplexities, in steps Miss Maggie Browne with a most useful little Manual, 'Pleasant Work for Busy Fingers' (Cassell) which will teach restless children to make the most delightful things out of the humblest material - paper, beads clay and so forth. Founding her volume on a German original, Miss Browne presents her subject in most practical form with numerous and diagrams likely to convince the slowest pupil."
Two Old Ladies, Two Foolish Fairies and a Tom Cat (the
hardback edition of previously serialised
The Surprising Adventures of Tuppy and Tue 1897) was reviewed in ''
Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper'', which wrote: "Children are who are lucky enough get this pretty book will rejoice in a treasure. Two young fairies leave fairyland to find out whether children have forgotten the fairies. They take with them Cinderella's slippers and other fairy properties. Their adventures are many but in the end find that the children love fairy stories as much as ever they did. They will certainly be fond of this one". Browne's stories also appeared in
Little Folks, Cassell & Co's "magazine for the young". Some, including
The Surprising Adventures of Tuppy and Tue and her last known published work,
The Book Of Betty Barber, were serialised in
Little Folks in 1896 and 1901, respectively, before being issued in book form with illustrations by
Arthur Rackham (
Tuppy and Tue renamed
Two Old Ladies, Two Foolish Fairies and a Tom Cat, published by Cassell in 1897, and
The Book of Betty Barber published by Duckworth & Co in 1910). while
The Tatler explained that "Betty had written the book so that when she was grown up and stupid she would know what her children would like or dislike. ... And then followed such a wonderful time ...: such adventures, such curious surprises, such unexpected excursions into Sum Land, Music Land, Paint Land, Nonsense Land, until at last [the] book comes to an end, and then one wants to turn back and read it all over again." == Personal life ==