Customer Reviews

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose: A Treasury of More Than 300 Classic Nursery Rhymes

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In the long and varied history of Ms. Mother Goose, so many collections and books of nursery rhymes have been made that it's a wonder anyone keeps track anymore. Certainly I was a child when this particular treasury originally came out and until my current grown state I'd never even heard of it. Illustrated by Arnold Lobel (the nice man who introduced the world to "Frog and Toad") this book is nothing if not extensive. It runs the gamut of rhymes, from classics like "Three Blind Mice" to limericks to tongue-twisters. It is a breathtaking achievement.

Many a nursery rhyme book, if extensive, will place two or three rhymes on a page and choose to illustrate only one. Not so Mr. Lobel. It is with great manual dexterity that he has found ways to merge, combine and bring together like-rhymes so as to combine their illustrations into a single motif. Consider his page containing romantic poems. Under around and through a single arbor dwell characters that act out such poems as "Something old, something new", "I love coffee", "Roses are red", and "If you love me, love me true". Poems about the weather, food, and royalty are similarly grouped. Longer poems, such as the classic "Partridge in a pear tree" are given full page multi-spreads. Lobel is nothing if not meticulous in his craft.

I did have an occasional objection. Though the book is expertly indexed, there is not so much as an author's note or preface explaining where he got these poems. The title page merely reads, "Selected and illustrated by Arnold Lobel", with scant attention to exactly WHERE he got them. This isn't idle curiosity either. More than one of these poems contains wordings different from those known to the pubic at large. For example, instead of the poem "London Bridge is falling down" we read that "London Bridge is broken down". Or smaller changes, such as making a ha' penny a half penny in "Christmas is coming".

Diligent parents beware. This book abounds with capital punishment and death. Much like the early fairy tales, nursery rhymes weren't always for the kiddie set. Adults liked them just as much. In the edition I happened to borrow from the library, some extraordinarily concerned parents took offense to a couple phrases in "This is the house that Jack built" (changing "That killed the rat" to "That bumped the rat" and "That waked the priest all shaved and shorn" to "That waked the minister all shaved and shorn"). Oog.

In the end, this is really a fabulous collection. The illustrations are adept (containing some very funny interpretations as well) and the rhymes not only familiar but enjoyable. If you don't mind the occasional change to the text here and there it is well worth your casual perusal and enjoyment.

I bought this when my son was a baby, but just brought it out now that he is three. Both of us have really enjoyed it. It has all the rythmes I was familair with plus so many I didn't know. I also now found an old source (Mother Goose) of some Barney songs we know! I particularly like that the illustrations are beautiful and truly representative of the rythme. So many other books dress animals up like people to illustrate Mother Goose. I like rythmes about little boys to show little boys and not pigs! This has confused my son. I highly recommend it and have since given it to several friends with small children.

There are lots of rhymes in this book, but I wouldn't consider them all Mother Goose (the itsy bitsy spider, yankee doodle etc.) Also some of the rhymes don't seem quite right-- the end of "Ring around the Rosies" is "hush, hush, hush, hush, we've all tumbled down". Some of the differences hurt the rhythm of the rhymes, too. Maybe these are just regional variations, but it wasn't what I expected. The illustrations are nice, though.

You have to understand that these nursery rhymes are not common in Europe and with my children going to an American school coming home with homework like "learn Humpty Dumpty by Wednesday" I was totally helpless telling my kids that mom doesn't know any of the rhymes which can be really embarassing.

So when I saw this book on Amazon I figured ok you can't do anything wrong ordering this.And good thing I got this book!!! I love the way each rhyme has their own drawings on the side. The colors are just beautiful making it more fun to learn all the rhymes.

The quality of the paper used for this book is good and hopefully it will last for a while until my kids have their own kids.

I recommend this book for anyone not just for people who have kids but for reading just because it is fun. It makes a great gift for someone who doesn't know nursery rhymes or for someone who wants to learn english in a more fun way < certainly helped me > :)

Formerly published as "The Random House Book of Mother Goose" in 1986, this new hardback reissue pays homage to the late Arnold Lobel, the famed Caldecott winning illustrator of the beloved "Frog and Toad" books, "On Market Street" and more than 100 others. This treasury of more than 300 classic nursery rhymes represents more than three years of toil for Lobel, and was the crowning achievement of his amazing career in children's literature. Despite the massive undertaking, Lobel never skimped here. Every rhyme - no matter how brief -- has a beautiful corresponding drawing, and many, many entries feature six or more images. Even for lengthy poems like "The First Day of Christmas" and "The House That Jack Built," he refused to take shortcuts, and so drew increasingly complicated images for each and every verse. Not everything was taken literally, however, and so the pages for other poems offer a rich diversity of characters. On one double-page spread, for instance, Lobel cleverly grouped unrelated verses and united them by drawing a variety of pigs for each disparate scene. Even as presented in this unabridged new edition today -- nearly two decades since the illustrations were created -- the fun, colorful and imaginative drawings are fresh, offering a delightful introduction to the classic 18th Century Mother Goose rhymes and assorted other gems for generations of children to come.

I struggled with nursery rhymes with my toddler. They LOVE rhyming at that age, yet the book of my youth (you know, the checkerboard covered version) was inappropriate. My child would choose a rhyme by the picture, and often I couldn't honor his selection. The problem with classic Mother Goose is that about a third of them are violent or somehow inappropriate, and another third are sold Olde Englishe as to be incomprehensible to a 3-year old American.
Arnold Lobel's book is perfect on two levels-- it is really well edited. The rhymes are nicely chosen, and he doesn't skimp on stanzas. I think he's filled in some favorites as well-- Little Miss Muffet has a friend scared by another critter, etc. There is some violence, as I believe Mother Goose would be a non-starter without some darkness. The Old Woman in a Shoe "whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed." This always was a bit of a dark poem, but the visual image of the large family in a shoe is engaging enough to love it anyway.
The other great thing, of course, is that we do better than mere visual images with Mr. Lobel. The pictures are AWESOME. Each and every rhyme is illustrated, and there are hundreds. The drawings are charming, and not at all dark. Often, they provide the levity that the rhyme may lack.
We love this book, and it makes a great baby gift.

...I'm perfectly happy with our Clare Beaton Mother Goose book... but still...This one is terrific!

Arnold Lobel went way beyond expectations in the illustrations -- BIG illustrations, some two-pagers, and some two-page-verticals! Isn't that fun? There are lots and lots and lots of great illustrations that make this book one to hold onto... even if you don't NEED another Mother Goose book.

NEED is a funny word.

You should get this.

A beautifully illustrated childrens book for those who love Arnold Lobel. The nursery rhymes are rather an odd selection, though, and very nonsensical.