A Stitch in Rhyme: A Nursery Rhyme Sampler - Hardcover

Downes, Belinda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679876790 ISBN 13: 9780679876793

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1996

Synopsis

Illustrated in full color. A former artist-in-residence at Queen Elizabeth's England Hampton Court Palace and an artist widely exhibited around the world, Belinda Downes is a needlesmith of royal quality. Now she has stitched playful pictures of Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, and nearly fifty other favorite Mother Goose characters onto fabric with colorful patchwork borders. For generations, even the youngest child has been entranced by these rhymes that trip off the tongue. Downes's distinctive and memorable illustrations make A Stitch in Rhyme one of the most visually exciting nursery rhyme anthologies to come along in years. This is a book that literary families will cherish for decades.  

About this title

Reviews

PreSchool-A collection of standard nursery rhymes with embroidered illustrations. Each selection is simply there; no natural groupings seem to occur. One or two rhymes and accompanying pictures are displayed within a patchwork border. The art lacks the fine detail of well-embroidered pieces; the fabric is more prominent than the stitchwork. The size of each person, animal, or thing is too constant throughout, giving the book a monotonous look. The strength of the artwork is the subtle use of characters of different ethnic backgrounds. The playfulness of the rhymes will catch children's attention; however, the illustrations are not attractive or varied enough to sustain that interest. For a comprehensive collection in which the rhymes and illustrations flow naturally from one to the next, try Michael Foreman's Mother Goose (Harcourt, 1991). For a beautiful, timeless collection of the standards, take a look at Elizabeth Harbour's A First Picture Book of Nursery Rhymes (Viking, 1996).
Dawn Ibey, Vancouver Public Library, Canada
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3^-5. Downes' method of illustration is embroidery, and she puts her stitchery to good use in this collection of nursery rhymes. All the favorites are here: "Old King Cole," "Jack and Jill," Mary and her lambs, but here they are executed in snippets of material highlighted with tiny stitches. The collage artwork is most noteworthy on the cover; inside, not all the pieces are sharply reproduced. The book has the advantage of going beyond the Mother Goose canon into other familiar rhymes such as "Monday's Child." Little ones will enjoy the pictures, and so will the mothers who read it to them. Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679876790
• ISBN 13: 9780679876793
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 44