SONGS FOR SIXPENCE
By
A new experience for some- and nostalgia for others- in this gentle biography of John Newbery, ""the first publisher to make something of a specialty of children's books"". His name is immortalized in the annual giving of the Newbery award, and this book will have functional value at that time in every library. John Newbery was born and raised on an English farm, and was a fish out of water for he preferred to dream and read rather than to dig. School gave him one escape; his friendship with his teacher, Dame Dorcas, gave him amother. By the time he was thirteen she had taught him all she knew and urged him to seek further knowledge elsewhere. Good fortune came with the opportunity to learn printing from William qarnan. On Garnan's death John married his widow, and found himself well enough off to open his own shop, Ye Bible and Sun, soon welcomed by London and the children in the area of St. Paul's churchyard. Through his experiences the reader shares his friendship with Oliver Goldsmith, the creation of Goody Two Shoes, the collecting from many sources of Mother Goose rhymes. We witness a sublime victory of nonsense over morals.