Father Gander Nursery Rhymes: The Equal Rhymes Amendment - Hardcover

Gander, Father

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0911655123 ISBN 13: 9780911655124

Publisher: Advocacy Pr, 1986

Synopsis

A collection of traditional nursery rhymes rewritten from a nonsexist, nonracist, and nonviolent viewpoint.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 1 Not a playful satire of Mother Goose rhymes, Father Gander's collection is of deadly earnest verse with a didactic purpose: "to amend nursery rhymes so they offer a more equitable world purview to children." The ideals that the author has defined as those which we all want our children to have are ones he feels can best be conveyed to children using the "socializing force" of poetry. The amended verses are true to these ideals. Sally Shaftoe, for example, has "gone away, to a job for equal pay." There is a Little Girl Green as well as a Little Boy Blue, a Joe Peep as well as a Bo Peep. About the only verse which doesn't include a counterpart from the other sex is "Hickety Pickety," which lays eggs for both women and men. Since the author is also against violence, Humpty Dumpty gets glued back together again. The family-planning version of "The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" describes an old couple who feed their many children on health food. The final couplet: "There's only one issue I don't understand. /If they didn't want so many why didn't they plan?" Illustrations are colorful if somewhat bland, with several verses per page, and the same group of three smiling rocks appearing on each page. The sheer fun, horseplay, alliteration and exact rhymes found in Mother Goose are not in this rewritten version, but the message is here. Ironically it takes an "equal rhymes" book to show that in the Family Geese, Father Gander may be more concerned with the world of politics, but poetry is best left to Mother Goose. Yvonne A. Frey, Peoria Public Library, Ill.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Advocacy Pr
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0911655123
• ISBN 13: 9780911655124
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 47