Customer Reviews

Ride A-Cock-Horse and Other Rhymes and Stories: Children's Classics (Everyman's Library Children's Classics)

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I'm amazed to discover that after being in print for 10 years, this beautiful book has never yet been reviewed here.

A 1906 review of his series of children's books states, "The Genius of Randolph Caldecott will stand for all time. Caldecott is lord of the nursery. No one has ever approached him. He is supreme. Every nursery -- every child's bookshelf that does not contain his Picture Books is poor indeed."

This is as true today, a century later, as when it was written. Maurice Sendak has stated, "As in a song, where every shade and nuance of the poem is heightened and given greater meaning by the music, so Caldecott's pictures illuminate the rhymes. This is the REAL Mother Goose -- marvellously imagined improvisations that playfully and rhythmically bounce off and around the verses without ever incongruously straying. If any name deserves to be permanently joined with that of Mother Goose, it is that of Randolph Caldecott. His picture books should be among the first volumes given to every child."

Randolph Caldecott's name is celebrated in the Caldecott Medal, awarded each year since 1938 by the children's section of the American Library Association, for the most distinguished children's picture book. Ironically, though, his own work has been difficult to find for quite a long time.

In the last quarter of the 19th Century, Caldecott produced 16 profusely illustrated small "Picture Books" of traditional or well-known rhymes and poems for children. Originally published by George Routledge & Sons (London) in a 9" x 8" format, and later reprinted in the same format by Frederick Warne, these titles were, in sequence,
1) The House That Jack Built
2) The Diverting History of John Gilpin
3) Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog (by Oliver Goldsmith)
4) The Babes in the Wood
5) Sing a Song for Sixpence
6) The Three Jovial Huntsmen
7) The Farmer's Boy
8) The Queen of Hearts
9) The Milkmaid
10) Hey Diddle Diddle, & Bye, Baby Bunting
11) A Frog He Would a-Wooing Go
12) The Fox Jumps Over the Parson's Gate
13) Come Lasses and Lads
14) Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross, & A Farmer Went Trotting Upon His Grey Mare
15) An Elegy on the Glory of Her Sex, Mrs Mary Blaize (by Oliver Goldsmith)
16) The Great Panjandrum Himself

This present Alfred A Knopf/Borzoi/Everyman's Library/Children's Classic edition is sturdily bound with sewn sections that will not crack apart like so many books more cheaply constructed. It contains the full text and original illustrations of half of Caldecott's original series: #14 (presented separately as Ride a-Cock-Horse, and A Farmer Went Trotting), and #s 2, 1, 8, 5, 4, 16, and 3 -- each one a personal favorite of my own. Nearly every page has either charming line drawings or a full-page color illustration.

It's not possible for any child to not be intrigued and engrossed by these wonderful pictures, even when the delightful rhymes are not being read aloud. This is a book that should be under every child's Christmas tree, or in the library of anyone who appreciates fine illustration.