I Saw Esau: The Schoolchild's Pocket Book

A collection of children's rhymes, first collected in England in 1946, including things like taunts and insults, riddles, skipping rhymes, and mocking verses about schoolwork. Most of them probably aren't exactly the sort of thing you'd find in Mother Goose.

The rhymes themselves are mildly interesting, sometimes vaguely amusing, and often (from the perspective of a 21st century American) entertainingly quaint-feeling in their language. There are a few brief notes on a number of them in the back -- something I wish I'd realized while I was reading through them -- but not enough to make this feel more like a work of scholarship than a collection of amusements.

It would all be diverting for a few minutes and then pretty quickly forgettable, show more I think, except that this edition, from 1992, also includes some delightfully offbeat (indeed, sometimes charmingly grotesque) illustrations by Maurice Sendak. show less

This is a lovely little book, full of lovely little illustrations!

It's based on a collection of rhymes first put together in the 1940s in England, though, and it's quite easy to tell - the rhymes are very British, and noticeably dated. And there's nothing wrong with that, but the book markets itself as universal rather than situating the rhymes in their context, as if mid-20th-century British *is* the universal, which bothers me a little.

On a similar tune, the notes in the back for each rhyme are nice, but I could wish for something more extensive, as many of these rhymes have a lot of regional variations, and a lot of interesting folk etymology, behind them. And I could wish for better indexing (or, actually, any indexing at all.) show more That's mostly me wishing this was a different book than it is, though. What it is, is a lovely little jewel of a pocket-book. show less

I can't decide which I love more about this book, the rebellious creative rhymes that stay with you all day or the beautifully compatible illustrations. Either way, this is also an old favorite that I delighted in revisiting. What a wonderful way to introduce older children to the fact that poetry can be "cool".

Sendak's unique style brings these historical childhood rhymes to life through illustration. Peter and Iona Opie spent a lifetime studying and collecting such rhymes, and we all benefit from this carrying forward of this British oral tradition.

This hardcover, with notes, looks scholarly - and is. However, if it were presented in a cheap mm Scholastic pb, children could also appreciate it. It's actually quite fun!

I bought this in Halifax at one of the world's best kids book store just after my daughter was born. Her special Aunt Betty came out for a visit just after, and loved the book so much that we got a second copy. Sendak has a special magic that can always fix anything, whether you're 2, 22, or 102.

No collection of humorous children's verse would be complete without this anthology of amusingly-illustrated absurdity.