Alan Mills (1) (1913–1977)

I do love a picture book one can sing instead of read, and I also love nursery rhymes and folk songs, but this book rather missed the note on several levels. First, as my librarian coworkers pointed out, the illustrations are rather unnerving. (One children's librarian thought they were "creepy, bordering on scary.") Second, a few of the songs/rhymes struggle with rhyme on occasion. (You're going to rhyme "cow" with "[fiddle and] bow"?). Third, while I'm quite well aware that people and show more animals dying is a thing that happens not uncommonly in folk songs, three out of the twelve songs in this book casually toss it in there. "Twelve Kittens" is going to take a special kind of young audience not to freak out over just how monstrously neglectful a pet owner the singer is.

But you can sing it, so I suppose there's that. show less