THIS LITTLE PIGGY

A sturdy and serviceable collection of rhymes and songs for toddlers.

Nursery rhymes, with their regular meter and repetitive sounds, are useful tools that expand toddlers’ vocabularies and, eventually, help them begin to match up memorized lines with printed words on the page. This introductory volume of verses includes a mix of old standards—“Humpty Dumpty,” “Jack and Jill,” and “This Little Piggy,” for example—alongside such popular children’s songs as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” and “The Wheels on the Bus.” “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” is on hand to teach children to count from one to 10. The artwork is simple and easily grasped by young readers; it is, therefore, also somewhat plain and lacking in detail. Rather than presenting each rhyme with distinct characters and scenarios, the book is peopled with friendly-looking animals who appear and reappear throughout its pages. This is not to say that the drawings lack personality. Humpty Dumpty manages to smile despite his freshly cracked skull, for example, and a turtle nurse slowly rushes to bandage Jack’s broken crown as Jill tumbles downhill, water spilling in all directions. Little Bo Peep’s sheep peer out from preposterously ineffective hiding places. The thick cover is ideal for little hands to grip, and the stiff cardboard pages should be tough to damage.

Perhaps not inspired, but durable and instructive.