Customer Reviews

Michael Foreman's Mother Goose

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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!

Michael Foreman's Mother Goose was later published under a different title, Michael Foreman's Nursery Rhymes. Different title, cover art, and font, yes, BUT the contents are the SAME. The text in this Harcourt Brace & Company title, published in 1991, is bolder; the text in the Walker Books title, Michael Foreman's Nursery Rhymes, published in 1998, is Veronan, which is a lighter, more delicate font. Other differences are this book's cover is a dark blue with gold print on the spine, without the artwork on the dust jacket; the Nursery Rhymes book's cover is the same artwork as the dust jacket, if it has a dust jacket - (my used copy did not). That said, I like the book, just disapppointed that I now have two used copies of the same book.

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!

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.

Looks like a good book for children. I had an old Brother Grimm's Fairy Tale book with all of these plus Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and it had nice color pictures when I grew up. It seems to be out of print. But this looks good for my grandson. It has little boy blue, -I just wish I could see the pictures and words inside the book, not just the back flap and front flap