RIDDLEDY PIGGLEDY

The nursery rhymes are nearly all familiar, but with a twist. Each is introduced by a rhyming riddle, a telling illustration, and the couplet, “What’s the answer? Let me see . . . / Have a think. Now what can it be?” Turn the page, and there’s a nursery rhyme that answers the riddle. This actually plays out rather cleverly, as in “Sky Pie” with its picture of a pot of honey, a half loaf of bread, a very empty pie pan, and the verse “Some bread and honey / and an empty pie, / and a bunch of blackbirds / singing nearby.” The next page, of course, has “Six a Song of Sixpence.” The illustrations are full of agitated line and sharp color, with cartoon exaggeration of faces and figures and some rather anthropomorphized animals like Old Mother Hubbard’s dog. Lighthearted and worth a storytime or two. (Picture book. 4-7)