Baby Goose - Hardcover

McMullan, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786804300 ISBN 13: 9780786804306

Publisher: Hyperion, 2004

Synopsis

Hark, hark the dogs do bark, The babies are heading for home, Some with hats, and some with cats, And one with a brush and a comb. From beloved author Kate McMullan and illustrator Pascal Lemaître comes the perfect collection of nursery rhymes for the bouncing baby in any family. Kate has selected rhymes with the most baby appeal, and then replaced the traditional hero or heroine with a baby. The result is utterly irresistible. Divided into sections and illustrated with Pascal's boisterous little ones, this makes a wonderful first introduction to Mother Goose and is a perfect gift for the mom-to-be, newborn, or young child.

About this title

Reviews

PreS–McMullan reworks 27 traditional rhymes to give babies center stage, beginning with Old Mother Goose on her gander with wee baby "geese" flying behind. Some babies like their Pease Porridge Hot and others their cake rolled and patted and marked with a B. Baby Griggs has seven wigs, the Baby Duke of York marches his men up the hill and down again, and a fine baby rides a white horse to Banbury Cross. The rhymes are collected thematically into four sections: morning, out and about, splish-splash, and bedtime. Whimsical, cartoon-style, pen-and-ink drawings are filled with babies, babies, babies, along with grown-ups, toys, barnyard animals, and an endearing group of animated sausages that show up when Baby goes a-walking and make their appearance again and again, finally flying obliviously off into the starlit night in the jaws of a friendly, if hungry, dog. An appealing front cover depicting a baby sleeping on a goose's back invites readers in, and pink and blue endpapers suggesting sunrise and sunset are particularly attractive. A charming addition to the Mother Goose canon.–Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This Mother Goose collection answers the burning question: Just how cute would it be if 27 nursery rhymes became completely baby-centric? Loosely sorting the verse into four sections that correspond to the arc of a baby's day, McMullan (If I Were Your Bunny) takes certain liberties with the verse as she casts infants in the title roles. For "Oh, the Grand Old Duke of York," she installs "the Baby Duke of York" to command 10,000 men. The three men in a tub are similarly deposed, as "Baby Splasher, Baby Slosher/ Baby Soapy Face Washer" replace the butcher, baker and candlestick-maker. While there's no denying that the target audience is notorious for its egocentrism, the rhymes rarely gain anything in this translation: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" is no more meaningful when the second line reads, "Babies wonder what you are." And often, something feels lost—those references to enchanted places, odd people and long ago times that give nursery rhymes their magic. But the results never turns twee, thanks to the irresistible, round-headed charms of Lemaître's (who collaborated with McMullan for Supercat) diapered cast. Precociously dramatic, the babies scamper about the pages on chubby little legs, gleefully running with the hounds on "Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark," and riding a cockhorse to Banbury Cross. Ages 6 mos.-3 yrs.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reviewed with Rose Fyleman's Mary Middling and Other Silly Folk.

PreS. These nursery rhyme collections will have great appeal for the lap-sitting crowd. First published in 1931, Fyleman's original nonsense poems appear in picture-book form for the first time, with clear ink-and-watercolor illustrations that express the silly slapstick of the words. In the spirit of Mother Goose, the verses' thumping rhythms ("Meg Moriarty bought a cow, / She tried to milk it, but didn't know how") and absurd scenarios are great for reading aloud. The pictures pick up the silliness, and sometimes the delicious wickedness, of the rhymes.

There's nothing wicked about McMullan's 27 cozy, traditional rhymes, which are organized into four sections--from wake up to good night. Most of the rhymes are true to the original, but a few have been slightly modified: for example, instead of whipping her children soundly before putting them to bed, the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe "sang them a song." Also, in some rhymes, babies replace adults as the active characters ("Baby Foster went to Gloucester"). Lemaitre's clear, cuddly, exuberant cartoon art, in pencil and watercolor, will have toddlers pointing at the characters and singing the words. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786804300
• ISBN 13: 9780786804306
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Lemaitre Pascal
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48