Here Comes Mother Goose (My Very First Mother Goose) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763606839 ISBN 13: 9780763606831

Publisher: Candlewick, 1999

Synopsis

From the award-winning creators of My Very First Mother Goose, an invitation to the simple joy and the sly humor that are the essence of Mother Goose.

Spread the word — here comes Mother Goose — and with her comes an entire procession of best-loved nursery rhyme characters, including Mary Mary Quite Contrary, Simple Simon, Old Mother Hubbard, Little Tommy Tucker, the Queen of Hearts, and many more. Joining them is an array of colorful folk you may not have met before: Mrs. Murphy, for instance, and My Aunt Jane; Freda the American Beauty, Bonny Bobby Shaftoe, and Dusty Bill from Vinegar Hill — each of them well worth getting to know, as we're sure you'll agree!

About this title

About the Author

Iona Opie (1923–2017) dedicated her life to collecting and preserving children's rhymes as art form. In a partnership with her husband, Peter Opie, she edited many acclaimed books for children's folklore, including The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes.

Rosemary Wells is the author and illustrator of more than 60 books for young readers. She has won many awards for her work, including more than 20 ALA Notable Book citations, The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year Award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. About Mother Goose, she says, "Mother Goose is a real culture. It's the real words of people who lived long ago. These rhymes are a celebration of the English language — it's our history and it's wonderful." Rosemary Wells lives in Briarcliff Manor, New York.

Reviews

PreSchool-This award-winning duo has created another captivating collection. More than 50 well-known nursery rhymes such as "1, 2, Buckle My Shoe," "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary," and "Old Mother Hubbard" are included, along with some less familiar but equally engaging ones like "One-ery, two-ery, tickery, ten,/Bobs of vinegar, gentlemen." Wells's watercolor-and-ink pictures of somersaulting guinea pigs, mischievous rabbits, and fluffy ducklings capture the sheer joy and exuberance of the rhymes. The illustrations also offer a fresh, modern interpretation: in "Cross-patch, draw the latch," two bunnies "call [their] neighbors in" on pastel telephones. Wells often extends the rhymes by adding extra details: children will delight in seeing Simple Simon find a pie that the pieman's truck has left behind. The book's large size makes it perfect for lap-sit reading and an alphabetical index by first line provides easy access to favorite selections. Make room on the shelves for this must-have title.
Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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.

This oversized companion to the much ballyhooed My Very First Mother Goose (1996) will take toddlers and ex-toddlers deeper into the playscapes of the language, to meet Old King Cole, Old Mother Hubbard, and Dusty Bill From Vinegar Hill; to caper about the mulberry bush, polka with My Aunt Jane, and dance by the light of the moon. Mixing occasional humans into her furred and feathered cast, Wells creates a series of visual scenarios featuring anywhere from one big figure, often dirty or mussed, to every single cat on the road to St. Ives (over a thousand). Opie cuts longer rhymes down to two or three verses, and essays a sly bit of social commentary by switching the answers to what little girls and boys are made of. Though Wells drops the ball with this last, legitimizing the boys' presence in a kitchen by dressing them as chefs, in general the book is plainly the work of a match made in heaven, and merits as much popularity as its predecessor. (Folklore. 1-6) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0763606839
• ISBN 13: 9780763606831
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Wells Rosemary
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 108
• Editor: Opie Iona