Father Fox's Pennyrhymes - Hardcover

Clyde Watson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0690292139 ISBN 13: 9780690292138

Publisher: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1986

Synopsis

Thirty rhymes record the various activities of Father Fox, his family, and friends.

About this title

Review:

Full of vim, vigor, and robust silliness, Father Fox's Pennyrhymes is at long last back in print. Father Fox and his russet-furred, pointy-nosed family romp through the pages of these original American nursery rhymes, written and illustrated in the early 1970s by a pair of Vermonter sisters, Clyde and Wendy Watson. Each two-page spread features a quirky little verse on one side and framed pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations on the other. The extensive Fox family, in their patchwork-mended clothes, tumble over one another as they depict the very rhymes their father tells. Nonsense blends with nostalgia in both word and picture, and the upbeat rhythms beg to be tapped, stomped, or shouted out loud in such gems as:

Ride your red horse down Vinegar Lane,
Gallop, oh gallop, oh gallop again!
Thistles & foxholes & fences beware:
I've seventeen children but none I can spare.

Joining the ranks of Edward Lear and Old Mother Goose, the Watson sisters created a classic with these marvelously zany "pennyrhymes." Welcome back! (Ages 3 and older) --Emilie Coulter

About the Author:

"I grew up on a farm in Vermont with seven younger brothers and sisters. Every morning my brother Peter and I went out to the barn and did our chores. My very favorite job was feeding the baby goats their bottles of milk. After we had our own breakfast, it was time for school-but I never left the house! Instead, I sat down at the big dining room table in front of the fireplace, with my books and pencils, and did what my mother told me, because she was my teacher.

"School at home was fun and interesting and did not take as long as school in a school building. I usually finished my work by lunchtime, and in the afternoon there were always exciting things to do with my brothers and sisters. We went exploring in the woods and pastures around our farm, or down to the river to fish. We liked to swim in the summertime and sled and ski and skate in the wintertime.

"If I wanted to be by myself, I could curl up with a book or go upstairs in our big house to visit my father's studio. That was where I found out what it was like to be an illustrator, because that is what my father was.

"In the evening, after we had fed the house cats and dogs, we all sat down and ate our own supper. That was usually a noisy time! Everyone wanted to talk at once. But when bedtime came, the house was finally quiet, and the only sound was the squeaking of the mice who lived in the walls.

"When I grew older, I went away and lived in the city for a while. But when my two children were small, I moved back to the country, and that is where I now live. All around me are the animals who have always been my special friends: chickens and pigs, mice, chipmunks, squirrels and birds, woodchucks, rabbits, foxes, beavers and porcupines. When I take a walk each day with my dog, I see the places where small creatures live and carry on their daily lives, and I try to put that in all of my books. And I also try to put in all that I have learned about what it is like to be alive in this exciting world."

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomas Y. Crowell
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0690292139
• ISBN 13: 9780690292138
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 56
• Illustrator: Wendy Watson