GRAY GOOSE AND GANDER & Other Mother Goose Rhymes

by Anne-Adapt. & Illus. Rockwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 1980

Agreeable, but uninspired: the sort of Mother Goose collection that suffices to introduce the rhymes but does nothing to make them memorable. A few are, as claimed, among the ""lesser-known"" rhymes; but not all of these are particularly worth knowing (""Bat, bat, come under my hat,/ And I'll give you a slice of bacon./ And when I bake, I'll give you a cake,/ If I am not mistaken""). Otherwise, this seems an arbitrary assortment--some famous ones in (""Barber, barber, shave a pig,"" ""Hey diddle, diddle,"" ""Fee, fi, fo, fum""), lots of other, very famous ones out (""Jack and Jill,"" ""Humpty Dumpty,"" ""Baa, baa, black sheep,"" etc.). But granting Rockwell her choices, she does very little with them. In the case of ""I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,"" she goes modern/literal and shows an infant squalling in the arms of its mother at the sight of the pediatrician (an animal mobile is prominently in view); with ""Dickery, dickery, dare,/ The pig flew up in the air,"" her updating is imaginative nonsense--the pig is in a plane, and the ""man in brown"" is bringing him down with a butterfly net. Mostly, though, these are mild never-never-land, or mild here-and-now, illustrations that hew to the lines of the verse. Unexceptionable as a supplement--it does have a spanking-fresh look--but nobody's first or second choice.

Pub Date: Aug. 6, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: T. Y. Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION