Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1703925 in Books
• Published on: 1991-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

From Kirkus Reviews
From a talented illustrator, a lush but uneven collection with a wealth of verse (over 200 rhymes, many unfamiliar), a delightful introduction by Iona Opie, and notably creative matching of rhymes to create composite double spreads (e.g., the old woman under the hill and the grand old Duke of York). The toddler chasing a feather across the opening pages is entrancing; the concluding pages of sunset fading into deepening blue are lovely. But few of the renditions offer new insights or memorable humor--Humpty Dumpty is ordinary compared to Brooke's; a pallid ``Hey Diddle Diddle'' makes one yearn for Caldecott, etc. Still, comprehensive and often attractive. Index. (Folklore/Picture book. 2-8) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author
MICHAEL FOREMAN is one of the world's leading illustrators of children's books and the winner of several major awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal. His work ranges from picture books to fairy tales and original children's fiction. He is the illustrator of many Harcourt books, including Michael Foreman's Mother Goose, Joan of Arc, and Arthur, High King of Britain. He divides his time between London and St. Ives, England, his childhood home.

Customer Reviews

Great favorite of my boys!
When my two boys were 2-4, they loved this book. It is worn out! It has the classic Mother Goose rhymes with funny and colorful illustrations. The illustrations have a lot of detail and characters continue on to the next pages which is fun for the boys to notice. I was given this book as a shower gift, and now it's a favorite to give!

Best Nursery rhymes
After reading many (we went through ALL of nursery rhyme books in the library!) nursery rhyme books to my granddaughter, she and I both agree this is the best one by far; so we bought it. The illustrations are beautiful and each nursery rhyme has its own illustration to go with it. Some of the rhymes have many more verses than are usually known. There are a few in the book that are not what I would consider "age appropriate" for a 3 year old but we just skip them. Bottom line -- Mother Goose would be proud of this book!

Wonderful
The kids & I truly enjoy this book. We read a few pages each night.

This book has over 150 pages of children's poems. Some we're familiar with such as: Yankee Doodle

Yankee Doodle cam to town,
Riding on a pony.
He stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni

Others I'd never heard of: I Can

I can tie my shoelace
I can comb my hair
I can wash my hands and face
And dry myself with care.

I can brush my teeth, too,
And button up my frocks:
I can say, How do you do?
And put on both my socks.

As the poet John Clare said in 1825, nursery rhymes "live on as common to memory as the seasons, and as familiar to children even as the rain and spring flowers."

Everyone is familiar with the efficacy of Little Jack Horner's thumb, the sad state of Mother Hubbard's cupboard, and the inadequate reason for the quarrel between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, so that a passing reference to any of these characters requires no further explanations. Wherever the English tongue is spoken, the "lingua franca" of nursery rhymes has been used to tell jokes and sell merchandise. Poets, too, have borrowed the old magic of phrases like "Over the hills and far away" to launch themselves on fresh odysseys.

To a child, nursery rhymes are full of satisfactions: other people's misdemeanors (Little Boy Blue) and disasters (Dr. Foster), romances (Lilies are White, Rosemary's Green): amazements (Robin & Bobbin) and mysterries (Ladybug, Ladybug): irrefutable logic (Jumping Joan) and happy accompaniments to the first steps in learning (A was and Apple Pie: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe). Their charm lies in their poeticality, and in the effortless absurdity with which porridge and pipes and pussy cats appear in improbable contexts.

To an adult, the rhymes are, above all, serviceable. Some can lull or excite the smallest infant, others can transfix a two-year old in mid-rampage, as well as distract him. On dismal gray afternoons a nursery rhyme book can hold spellbount a whole houseful of malcontents -

Especially, if, like this book, it is illustrated by an artist who possesses tremendous talent. The artwork is fantastic. There's a water color drawing for & related to each poem.