No doubt you have a few favorite nursery rhymes you remember from childhood. Ours include "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," "Old King Cole," and "Little Miss Muffet."
This outstanding collection of 150 short poems or songs come from English-speaking countries, including Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, and the Caribbean. There are also rhymes from Chinese, Latino, African, and other cultures. The best-loved nursery rhymes are all here, but there also new discoveries from Native American, First Nation, Inuit, and Maori cultures. The selections were made by Elizabeth Hammill, cofounder of Seven Stories, Britain's National Centre for Children's Books.
The rhymes are presented on two-page spreads created by 77 artists, many of them award-winning illustrators of children's books. As you turn the pages, you will marvel at all the different styles. For a clapping rhyme, Ashley Bryan gives us full page illustrations of girls from the Caribbean with colorful baskets. Intricate pastel drawings by Helen Craig tell the story of Jack and Jill who went up the hill. Satoshi Kitamura uses paper cutouts and a paper plate in his illustration for "Hey, diddle, diddle, … and the dish ran away with the spoon." Marcia Williams presents "Old Mother Hubbard" in the style of a cartoon with many panels.
Nursery rhymes are playful and instructive, encouraging and cautionary, full of fantastical creatures and very down-to-earth. This book provides a multi-faceted experience of them for both adults and children.
