Mother Goose Reviews

Tomie's Little Mother Goose by Tomie dePaola
      30 pp. Putnam
      Reviewed 1/86
Selections from Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose have been collected in a spaciously designed board book perfectly attuned to its audience. One nursery rhyme per page is the norm; occasionally two short verses occupy the same spread — all are accompanied by dePaola's appropriately benign illustrations. A typographical error ('Yanke Doodle') is unfortunate.

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose by Arnold Lobel
      176 pp. Knopf
      Reviewed 4/04
Originally published as The Random House Book of Mother Goose. The name change is appropriate and otherwise changes this superior, substantive collection not in the least. A true classic, with more than three hundred verses and Lobel's vigorous, lively, narrative-filled illustrations. M.V.P.

Mother Goose's Little Misfortunes by Amy Schwartz and Leonard Marcus
      32 pp. Simon
      Reviewed 11/90
A fresh, well-focused, and intelligently chosen collection of eighteen generally less familiar rhymes about people and animals who face 'little misfortunes' in their lives. Stylized shapes, unusual perspectives, and exaggerated sizes in the humorous, bright watercolors combine to create a graceful and pleasing whole.

My Very First Mother Goose by Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells
      108 pp. Candlewick
      Reviewed 11/96
Sixty-eight rhymes have been selected with parents, babies, and toddlers firmly in mind. The book is not a definitive Mother Goose, with familiar rhymes such as Old Mother Hubbard missing and less familiar ones included, and there are no footnotes or sources. But as a first Mother Goose, the book does its job superbly, and central to its success are Wells's cozy and appealing illustrations.

Here Comes Mother Goose by Iona Opie
      108 pp. Candlewick
      Reviewed 11/99
Illustrated by Rosemary Wells. This companion volume to My Very First Mother Goose is even more successful than the first — more cohesive in terms of quality of art and totality of design, more venturesome in the selection of the nursery rhymes. The book as a physical object is stunning, and Wells's art is captivating, even vigorous. So here comes Mother Goose — and, to those who welcome this book into their lives, many, many hours of shared reading pleasure.

The Movable Mother Goose by Robert Sabuda
      14 pp. Little Simon
      Reviewed 4/00
From a pink-ribboned Little Bo-peep, in the guise of a sheepdog, to the nimble grasshopper Jack jumping over a candlestick to a flock of Elvis-impersonating blackbirds bursting forth from a pie in song, Mother Goose rhymes spring to fresh life through Sabuda's impressive feats of paper engineering. The book isn't likely to hold up well under strenuous handling, but with its sly humor it will entertain and amuse both kids and adults.

Dan Yaccarino's Mother Goose by Dan Yaccarino
      48 pp. Golden (Random)
      Reviewed 4/05
You've never seen Mother Goose like this before: in Yaccarino's world, the fiddling cat of "Hey, diddle, diddle" fame is a beatnik street musician, Jack Sprat and his wife eat at a fifties-style diner, and Mary's lamb follows her to school in a taxi. Kids will find the images illustrating the familiar rhymes refreshing and funny; appreciative adults may find them playfully subversive.

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