Product Details
Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose

Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose
By Leo & Diane Dillon

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Product Description

The numbers are on the loose--hiding and dancing, skipping and laughing through the rhymes of Mother Goose! It’s a good thing Caldecott Medal-winning artists Leo and Diane Dillon have helped gather up all these mischievous numbers in a stunning celebration of counting, rhymes, and imagination.
    
The rhymes, both familiar and lesser known, are ordered from simple (1, 2, 3) to more complex numbers, making this a collection to grow with. The illustrations are filled with surprising wit and whimsy. And this vibrant, playful volume is irresistible as an introduction to Mother Goose or as a new delight for her longtime fans.
     Includes a note from the illustrators.
(10/08/2007)

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #514813 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-10-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 56 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
In a rare jolly mood, the Dillons illustrate 24 traditional counting rhymes with page-filling arrays of capering animals, diminutive grotesques, and human figures wearing partial or full-head masks. The verses progress from 1,2,3, / the bumblebee to 4-and-20 blackbirds. Although the pictures generally provide literal depictions of the action, they have a sophistication that plays oddly against the simple language of the texts. The selection has its quirks, too: As I was going to St. Ives, has, perhaps wisely, been left out but not the lesser known, rather startling Charley Barley, butter and eggs, / Sold his wife for 3 duck eggs . . . . Parents uncomfortable or bored with the more child-friendly illustrations in such standbys as Rosemary Wells' My Very First Mother Goose (1996) and its many sequels might find this a more intriguing choice for sharing with their young offspring. Good to pair with Iona Opie's Mother Goose's Little Treasures, illustrated by Wells, reviewed on p.117. Peters, John

Review

* "As they explain, the Dillons “offer children an invitation to...playful, energetic, magical, even at times mischievous numbers” with rhymes both well- and lesser-known, progressing “from rhymes with smaller numbers to those with larger numbers.” Thus, their selection of a couple of dozen rhymes doubles as an offbeat counting book; but their sunny, crisply rendered art does much more: in honoring the “fantastical quality of Mother Goose,” the illustrators have created a sweetly surreal space inhabited by humans (often wearing masks: it’s a false nose that the maid in “Sing a Song of Sixpence” loses to a blackbird), animals clothed or au naturel, dancing numerals, a clock with arms to ring its own alarm, a boat-rowing fish, and whimsical sizes (a tiny elf catches a huge “hare alive”). Such intriguing details broaden the meaning on every page, and if the literal-minded can’t always find precisely the number in question (“From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is 15 miles”) in the pictures, there are plenty of other clearly delineated things to count and discuss. A charming and original vision that’s also just plain beautiful: this Mother Goose belongs in the permanent canon." (starred review)
(The Horn Book Magazine )

* “A wholly original Mother Goose book, the Caldecott-winning Dillons’ collection of number rhymes is so imaginative and playful that each reading yields something new and unexpected. . . . Inventive, artistically dazzling and full of wit, this Mother Goose collection is absolutely irresistible.” (starred review)
(Publishers Weekly )

About the Author

LEO & DIANE DILLON have together illustrated more than twenty-five books for children, including the Caldecott Medal winner Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema. The Dillons live in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

Numbers on the loose5
This is a great book. It has a few Mother Goose rhymes I didn't even know about. My grandkids love it. We can read the rhymes, but we can also discuss the wonderful illustrations and make up even more stories. This is one of my favorites.

Learning to count with Mother Goose4
This book is filled with Mother Goose rhymes containing numbers, and fun yet quirky illustrations with myriads of animals, people and objects to count.

The illustrations remind me of the artwork of James Christensen, as seen in A Journey of the Imagination: The Art of James Christensen. There is just this whimsical quality to the pictures that is very unique.

As for the Mother Goose rhymes, there are many familiar rhymes in this book, but also some fun, unfamiliar ones. This is a fun Mother Goose collection with a twist! Very creative.