WENDY WATSON'S MOTHER GOOSE

A large, attractive new edition that includes most of the familiar nursery rhymes and an unusual selection of others, arranged informally to reflect the cycle of the day and the year. Many of Watson's choices reveal that much of this pithy verse originated as humorous response to uncomfortable facts of life--from her pointed dedication page (""If you are not handsome at twenty/Not strong at thirty/Not rich at forty/Not wise at fifty,/You never will be"") to the plaint of a neglected child (""I'll tell by own daddy, when he comes home,/What little good work my mammy has done./She has earned a penny and spent a groat/And burnt a hole in the child's new coat""). The illustrations--in Watson's familiar cozy, whimsical style--wary from miniature vignettes to panoramas that frequently refer to rural New England; featuring animal characters as often as humans, they are more decorative than interpretive, in most cases capturing a moment rather than extending the meaning. Bibliography of sources; index of first lines; and, to delight teachers and program planners, a subject index with more than 600 entries.