Mary Had a Little Jam and Other Silly Rhymes

Bruce Lansky teams up with some friends to serve up a sequel to or, more accurately, a rewrite of the traditional Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

This couplet pretty much epitomizes the results:

"Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a rooster.
His saddle wasn't high enough, so now he's got a booster."

My daughter thought that this was hilarious satire when she was three. I find it an exercise in tedium as they just pull the same trick forty more times.

FOR REFERENCE:

Originally published as The New Adventures of Mother Goose: Gentle Rhymes for Happy Times.

Contents:
• Old Mother Goose / Bruce Lansky
• Mary Had a Little Jam / Bruce Lansky
• Hickory, Dickory, Dock / Jeffery Goodson
• Hickory, Dockory, Hic / Bob Zanger
• There Was a show more Little Girl / Brad Schreiber
• Georgie Porgie / Bruce Lansky
• Little Miss Muffet / Bruce Lansky
• Jack and Jill / Bruce Lansky
• Jack Was Nimble/ Bruce Lansky
• Little Bo-Peep / Bruce Lansky
• Little Boy Blue / Bruce Lansky
• Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling, My Girl June / Bruce Lansky
• Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling, My Son Scooter / Gwen Molnar
• Row, Row, Row Your Boat / Bruce Lansky
• Rub-a-Dub-Dub / Mary Collins Dunne
• London Bridge / Bruce Lansky
• Humpty Dumpty / Mary Collins Dunne
• Mary, Mary Quite Contrary / Bruce Lansky
• Tom, Tom, the Teacher's Son / Sylvia Andrews
• Old Mother Hubbard / Bruce Lansky
• Peter, Peter, Sugar Eater / Bruce Lansky
• Fee Fie Fo Fum / Bruce Lansky
• Hiccup, Hiccup / Bruce Lansky
• Some Like It Hot / Bruce Lansky
• Hey Diddle, Diddle / Stan Lee Werlin
• Lavender Blue / Bruce Lansky
• Old King Cole / Larry Cohen and Steve Zweig
• Pat a Cake / Bruce Lansky
• Pat a Pie / Virginia Kroll
• There Was an Old Woman / Larry Cohen and Steve Zweig
• Yankee Doodle / Robert Scotellaro
• Roses Are Red / Bruce Lansky
• Jack Sprat / Lois Muehl
• Simple Simon / Bruce Lansky
• Wee Willie Winkie / Bruce Lansky
• Dapple-Gray / Brad Schreiber
• Three Kind Mice / Robert Scotellaro
• Sweetheart, You're My Little Star / Bruce Lansky
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star / Elizabeth Weiss
• Star Light, Star Bright / Bruce Lansky
• Rock-a-Bye, Baby / Bruce Lansky show less

I like this book for three reasons. First, I like how the author took the traditional Mother Goose nursery rhymes and gave them a hilarious spin. The author uses the same characters such as Jack and Jill, Little Bo-Peep, and Humpty Dumpty and changes their rhyme into new silly verses. For example, most children know the rhyme that Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall and had a great fall and the king’s men couldn’t put him back together again. In this book, the rhyme continues to say, “I wish they’d had super glue way back then-they could have put Humpty together again.” Second, I like the illustrations. The illustrator took the time to put the little details into the drawings. For instance, in the “Hickory, Dockory, Hic” poem show more about a sick clock, it has an illustration of a doctor wearing multiple watches using a stethoscope on a sad clock. The illustrator did a good job of converting the poem’s contents into a drawing. Lastly, I like how it is a collection of nursery rhymes written by different authors. By adding different nursery rhymes the reader is more engaged trying to identify new rhyme patterns. The big idea of this book is being positive. Mother Goose is known for having a frightening ending, but this book takes these nursery rhymes and gives them a silly and optimistic ending. show less

I love this little rhyming book. It takes all of the classc rhymes we all know and love and changes them into something for the children of this day and age. When Mary had a little lamb turns into Mary had a little jam we all know the book is going to be very funny. The illustrations that go along with each rhyme are very cute.

Funny twists on all the classic Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It is especially good if kids know the original stories, so I would read the real rhymes to them first.

Mary Had a Little Jam is a great twist on your favorite nursery rhymes. Clever and funny, kids will get a kick out of listening to and/or reading these rhymes.

Cute retellings of classic nursery rhymes. My nieces like this one a lot more than I do!

This book is about how Mary uses Jam on everything. This book is also filled with different other nursery rhymes as well. Humpty Dumpty,Old King Cole, Hey Diddle Diddle, Yankee Doodle, etc.