Marguerite De Angeli's Book of Nursery & Mother Goose Rhymes

Too much, too twee, and too dated. I suppose that it was nice, back in the day, to only have to buy one book to get a "treasury" of rhymes and pictures, but I can't imagine many families today being interested. I'm not, and I *am* the target audience.

One of the biggest problems is that there is no organization. No titles, no page breaks, much less any sort of chapter breaks to sort theme or subject. A new verse might be a new poem, or a continuation of a longer poem, but there's no way to tell. Related issue: the answers to the riddles are typed immediately below, right side up, so no chance to guess them.

Amateur scholars might like it - it's interesting to learn, for example, how many verses some rhymes have, when we know them only by show more their first verse. And there's a story I love about the man & wife trading chores for the day, that here is represented in rhyme... the prose adaptations I've read are more successful, but the poem does have it's own charm.

Unfortunately, the illustrations, imo, don't succeed. They look, to me, as if someone took de Angeli's pieces, artificially distressed them, and then printed them for the book. (I don't know anything about bookmaking technology though, so I have no idea.... I'm just saying.)

In order to avoid having to choose a star rating, I chose to skip many of the verses. But I did turn every page and skim the entire book. show less

This is the Mother Goose book I grew up with. Only the one I grew up with belonged to my older brother, so it took me 30 years to find this one in a used bookstore. That is how much I love it. The illustrations are lovely, the rhymes are traditional and every page is a treat.

My wife writes:
When I was a little girl in Calcutta, this book was sent to me from New York by my father's friend. To say that I loved this book would be an understatement. I was part of the rhymes. I was with the children who came out to play at night when the moon shone as bright as day. I agonised over the babes in the wood who were brilliantly illustrated in a large and detailed pencil sketch. Lovely book and part of my childhood.

I received this book as a gift when I was a young girl. It has always been one of my favorites not just for the rhymes in it, but moreso for the beautiful illustrations. I remember pouring over them for hours while reading and memorizing the rhymes. A cherished book in my personal collection.

This book was given to me when I was a baby. Since then I have raised two children of my own and read literally thousands of children's books, but this is still one of my all-time favorites. The pictures are adorable and the collection contains all the classic Mother Goose rhymes. I'm not sure if it is still in print, but I recommend buying it if you come across a copy.

I have loved Mother Goose and other Rhymes as long as I can remember. What attracts me to certain editions of many titles are the covers and illustrations within as well as the known text.

This refers to Angeli edition of Mother Goose. I don't get exceedingly excited about the illustrations, but it's good for historical context. I'd choose a different illustrator if I were choosing.