Amazon.com Review
Ready or not, here she comes! That clever, mischievous, loving matriarch of the nursery knows more verses and ditties than you can shake a stick at. From the familiar "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" and "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" to the more obscure "I'm Dusty Bill from Vinegar Hill," this lovely, good-humored collection of nursery rhymes is sure to find a place on the shelf of classics. On the heels of her first award-winning collection,
My Very First Mother Goose, world-renowned folklorist Iona Opie brings together still more of her never-ending supply of childhood verse. And once again the incomparable Rosemary Wells (
Max's Bath,
Max's Bedtime,
Max's Ride) has joined Opie to enchant young readers as the two blend ancient verse with fresh new pictures. Soft, appealing watercolors depict a comical menagerie of ducks, bunnies, cats, and guinea pigs, wittily interpreting more than 60 old favorites. No new parent should be without this indispensable treasure. (Click to see a
sample spread. Copyright 1999 by Rosemary Wells. Used by permission of Candlewick Press.) (Baby to preschool)
--Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
Even if this volume isn't quite as illuminating as Opie and Wells's My Very First Mother Goose, it abounds with charm and wit; there is no one like Opie for collecting traditional verse, and no one like Wells for radiant, childlike visual interpretation. Both exhibit a puckish streak here. Opie, for example, introduces some rhymes that are distinctly American ("Away down east,/ away down west,/ Away down Alabama,/ The only girl that I love best/ Her name is Susianna"); others have a British accent ("I am a Girl Guide/ dressed in blue"). She mischievously transposes the sexes in the classic "What are little boys/girls made of?"; Wells accordingly shows girls playing with frogs, snails and so on, while a troupe of Lilliputian-size boys in toques and bakers' uniforms pose next to comparatively huge spoons, milk bottles, etc. In the previous collection, Wells's ingenious and enlightening pictorial translations were a high spot; here, her gifts manifest themselves in dramatic palettes, clever casting and playful juxtapositions of classic and contemporary motifs. Mother Hubbard, for example, goes shopping on a motor scooter; she appears a second time, with her dog, and readers learn that her first name is Sukey; in a third showing, she figures on a poster for cake, at Banbury Cross. The artist's flair for detail emerges in such flourishes as miniature instruction cards outlining the steps for different dances (e.g., the polka, opposite verse about "My Aunt Jane,/ She came from France,/ To teach to me the polka dance"; the tango, opposite "I danced with a girl with a hole in her stocking"). Beautiful and beguiling, this book will win over just about everyone. Ages 2-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
