RHYMES AROUND THE DAY

by Pat--Ed. Thomson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 22, 1983

Traditional nursery rhymes--of diverse kinds--with contemporary illustrations in the mode of Ormerod's Sunshine and Moonlight (about morning and bedtime), but more wishy-washy: faint colorings and outlines, vapid expressions. The real difficulty, though, is in trying to attach rhymes that have no reference to everyday life (like ""Humpty-Dumpty""), or to contemporary life (""Dan, Dan, Dirty old Man,/Washed his face in a frying pan""), to the daily family round. ""Humpty Dumpty"" becomes what appears to be three runny eggs in three egg cups (more confusingly, one cup rooster-shaped, one chicken-shaped, and one plain); ""One, Two, Buckle My Shoe"" becomes a sequence in which the twin sisters actually reenact the rhyme (""a big fat hen"" also turning up one cue). In other cases, somewhat more imaginatively (and much more sensibly), the rhymes just become part of family play--with Daddy, for instance, bouncing the baby to ""Rigadoon, Rigadoon,/Now let him fly."" Once, Rojankovsky mixed ordinary kids into a costume Mother Goose, and there have been other truly satisfactory adaptations; this, however, is a strained link-up--where neither the family doings nor the nursery rhymes gain.

Pub Date: Aug. 22, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1983

Categories: CHILDREN'S