A refreshing realism pervades this lyrical collection of Jamaican folk tunes. These characters quarrel (``Me an' Katie no `gree, Katie wash me shirt in a sea''), run out of water (``Downtown gal have no water to wash them head and keep them clean''), break men's hearts (``Nancy Banana da broke man heart''), and celebrate everything from merry-go-rounds to the sweet shade of the ``jiniper tree'' to morning. There are some ironic lines that parents may want to set aside some time to explain (``I an' my wife cannot agree,...She spread me bed on the dirty floor,...For Devil made the woman an' God made man,'' says a husband). Jekyll collected these rhymes and first published them in 1907. Mair's illustrations don't attempt to capture individual expressions or subtlety of feeling; they happily crowd people and objects together in a dense lather of shapes and colors. The sheer exuberance of both the lyrics and the illustrations generally need no explanation. (Music; notes on rhymes) (Folklore/Poetry/Picture book. 5+)
