Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Even if this volume isn't quite as illuminating as Opie and Wells's My Very First Mother Goose, it abounds with charm and wit; there is no one like Opie for collecting traditional verse, and no one like Wells for radiant, childlike visual interpretation. Both exhibit a puckish streak here. Opie, for example, introduces some rhymes that are distinctly American ("Away down east,/ away down west,/ Away down Alabama,/ The only girl that I love best/ Her name is Susianna"); others have a British accent ("I am a Girl Guide/ dressed in blue"). She mischievously transposes the sexes in the classic "What are little boys/girls made of?"; Wells accordingly shows girls playing with frogs, snails and so on, while a troupe of Lilliputian-size boys in toques and bakers' uniforms pose next to comparatively huge spoons, milk bottles, etc. In the previous collection, Wells's ingenious and enlightening pictorial translations were a high spot; here, her gifts manifest themselves in dramatic palettes, clever casting and playful juxtapositions of classic and contemporary motifs. Mother Hubbard, for example, goes shopping on a motor scooter; she appears a second time, with her dog, and readers learn that her first name is Sukey; in a third showing, she figures on a poster for cake, at Banbury Cross. The artist's flair for detail emerges in such flourishes as miniature instruction cards outlining the steps for different dances (e.g., the polka, opposite verse about "My Aunt Jane,/ She came from France,/ To teach to me the polka dance"; the tango, opposite "I danced with a girl with a hole in her stocking"). Beautiful and beguiling, this book will win over just about everyone. Ages 2-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-This award-winning duo has created another captivating collection. More than 50 well-known nursery rhymes such as "1, 2, Buckle My Shoe," "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary," and "Old Mother Hubbard" are included, along with some less familiar but equally engaging ones like "One-ery, two-ery, tickery, ten,/Bobs of vinegar, gentlemen." Wells's watercolor-and-ink pictures of somersaulting guinea pigs, mischievous rabbits, and fluffy ducklings capture the sheer joy and exuberance of the rhymes. The illustrations also offer a fresh, modern interpretation: in "Cross-patch, draw the latch," two bunnies "call [their] neighbors in" on pastel telephones. Wells often extends the rhymes by adding extra details: children will delight in seeing Simple Simon find a pie that the pieman's truck has left behind. The book's large size makes it perfect for lap-sit reading and an alphabetical index by first line provides easy access to favorite selections. Make room on the shelves for this must-have title.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool) This companion volume to My Very First Mother Goose (rev. 11/96) 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. Opie has included many nonsense verses and swinging jump-rope rhymes, many of which have a benign surrealness to them (""Will you come to my party, will you come? / Bring your own bread and butter and a bun. / Mrs. Murphy will be there, / Tossing peanuts in the air, / Will you come to my party, will you come?"") that effectively levels the intellectual playing field: the words are as much nonsense to the adult as to the child-and delight both. As in the first book, there are no source notes, and Opie has taken liberties with established texts, at times including just a fragment of a whole verse, at times even editing to affect meaning (little girls rather than little boys are here made of ""frogs and snails and puppy dog tails""). But somehow the book transcends such unhappy alterations: Opie is referring to Mother Goose, but she might be speaking of herself when she says in her introduction, ""More than all the others she liked the songs that run in people's heads and make them skip instead of walk, or dance around a room all on their own""-for this collection skips; it dances. The book as a physical object is stunning: the design incorporates an inspired alternation of saturated color and white space; pages crowded with images and refreshingly spare pages; small vignettes tucked into a corner with wee type and double-page spreads consisting of one large picture and enormous type. Wells's art-featuring a cast of guinea pigs, little yellow chicks, bunnies, and kitty cats-is captivating, even vigorous (especially Dusty Bill from Vinegar Hill-surely one of the toughest-looking baby bunnies in all children's literature). So here comes Mother Goose-and, to those who welcome this book into their lives, many, many hours of shared reading pleasure. m.v.p. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This oversized companion to the much ballyhooed My Very First Mother Goose (1996) will take toddlers and ex-toddlers deeper into the playscapes of the language, to meet Old King Cole, Old Mother Hubbard, and Dusty Bill From Vinegar Hill; to caper about the mulberry bush, polka with My Aunt Jane, and dance by the light of the moon. Mixing occasional humans into her furred and feathered cast, Wells creates a series of visual scenarios featuring anywhere from one big figure, often dirty or mussed, to every single cat on the road to St. Ives (over a thousand). Opie cuts longer rhymes down to two or three verses, and essays a sly bit of social commentary by switching the answers to what little girls and boys are made of. Though Wells drops the ball with this last, legitimizing the boys' presence in a kitchen by dressing them as chefs, in general the book is plainly the work of a match made in heaven, and merits as much popularity as its predecessor. (Folklore. 1-6)
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