I bought this book for my one-year-old daughter thinking it was just Wee Willie Winkie, since this was one of the first rhymes I learned as a child. Much to my pleasure and surprise, this nicely-sized board book has much more to offer: Pat-a-cake, Jack and Jill, Down at the Station (very cute train rhyme), The Brave Old Duke of York, If I Had a Donkey (one I've never heard before, but very, very cute), Dance to Your Daddy, and Star Light, Star Bright.

The illustrations are attractive - happy and warm. The Dance to Your Daddy rhyme is a bit odd because the next line is "My little babby". Olde English? Also, in Wee Willie Winkie, one of the lines is "Crying through the lock" and I remember it being "Tapping at the lock", but that could just be my poor memory.

I am very pleased with this little volume and am thinking of purchasing more from the collection.

All of the Opie/Wells Mother Goose books are fantastic. Although I have the 2 volume "library edition" of their Mother Goose, this is the book we read everyday, since my daughter wants to grab and chew her books. No wonder this is her favorite: the rhymes are melodic, enchanting and accessable while the illustrations are inspired, beautiful and charming. It is the perfect introduction to the wonders and playfulness of language, for both child and parent.

We've gotten lots of mileage out of this little book. I really appreciate how thick the pages are (very easy for little hands to turn) and how well made it is. Even board books don't last long in my house (6 young children here), but this one has been around for well over a year, and it's well loved, too.

The rhymes are shortened to their most essential parts, perfect for little ones. We can go through the book several times in one sitting, and each poem fits neatly on a page.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Down By the Station, and several other popular nursery rhymes are in this book. The illustrations are adorable and the colors are nice and bright.

Highly recommended!

Everything the Opies write is fascinating and approachable, and this book is a revelation. All these tales, familiar and no-longer-so-familiar, are great to read in this age of sanitised, bowdlerised, or Disneyfied folktales. But the historical details of how the stories evolved, what and from where the variants are, and the significance of various elements of the stories - all these are of great general interest, and are also invaluable to the storyteller needing to do a bit of research.

I first read this book in 1983, and was amazed with it then. It's unique and extremely interesting. Iona and Peter Opie have the original tales as first printed in the English language. Added to that is the history and the actual gruesome origins of what we now consider children's stories! For example, Sleeping Beauty is not awakened by a kiss. Her Prince Charming violates her while she sleeps (and since she doesn't wake up, we can only imagine how mediocre he was...). She only awakens 9 months later, during the birth of twins! He eventually returns to her, and then the story gets more complicated with his ogre mother who wants to canibalize the children. The story of the Frog Prince is even stranger. Since these are the actual tales, we can see how we've changed the stories to fit in with our culture. This is not a book for young children. The history part was the most fascinating to me. In addition, litle details such as learning that Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of squirrel fur, not glass. Both words in French are spelled similarly (vaire, verre...I'm not sure of the spelling either)and the original printer had a typo that lives on til today.

It's simply wonderfull! More than 500 nursery rhymes, lullabies, riddles with intresting notices about origin. A real treasure for me and for my site: www.filastrocche.it.

This is the seminal publication on nursery rhymes, IMO. The Opies have been collecting information about nursery rhymes for more than 50 years. The second edition of their OD of NR was published last year (1997) and is greatly updated on the first. It includes indepth analysis of over 550 nursery rhymes. I've been unable to find a NS of my knowledge that isn't included in there.

It makes a great present for a new-born, or his/her parents more like!

I got this in the mail today and think it's really cute. I think my daughter will really like it as I bought it for her 2nd birthday and she is really into books now. It has a lot of colorful illistrations and little rhymes that are short enough for little ones to learn quickly.

We were first given Pussycat, Pussycat and its companion, Wee Willie Winkie, as a baby shower present. From the moment our son first laid eyes on the books, he adored them. The illustrations, which feature kitties, bunnies, and other creatures, are colorful and enticing, and of course you can't go wrong with Mother Goose as the author! The text invites adult readers to sing songs, create special hand motions to accompany the nursery rhymes, and all parents and caretakers will love watching their children's faces light up with anticipation as they realize what rhyme comes next. I recommend this and all other Opie/Wells books in the series.

This is the Mother Goose that a folklorist loves ... more specifically that the folklorist Iona Opie loved enough to select from the Opie Collection of Children's Literature, a collection of folklore and literature housed at Oxford University. Most of these rhymes will be unfamiliar as many of them have not previously been published or are less familiar varients of published rhymes.

The illustrations are delightful; they represent a wide range of illustrators working today. Some of the rhymes include dialect which is unobtrusibly "translated". Here and there are notes explaining something about the source of the rhyme.

Examples: "Mrs. Burns' Lullaby" was crooned by Robert Burn's wife Jean to their children. "An Indian Giant's Fishing Tackle" was published in 1653; it is based on a Native American's tradition of a giant living on Martha's Vinyard. But the rhymes are not "exotic" they sound like traditional Mother Goose: "Ginger, Ginger, broke the winder, / Hit the winder - Crack! / The baker came out to give 'im a clout / And landed on 'is back".

Absolutely wonderful book. [Opie's more traditional First Mother Goose is also wonderful.]

Our family happened upon this book strictly by accident, but it has since become an absolute favorite in our home. The illustrations are by a collection of many of the best contemporary children's illustrators, and the poems are wonderfully fresh and original, ranging from irreverently playful to magically contemplative in tone. The poems were picked by Iona Opie from the Opie Collection--a collection of Children's literature and folklore at Oxford University. Great for reading aloud to children of any age.

This affordably priced quality paperback edition of familiar tales from Greek mythology is truly a treasure and a wonderful way to enjoy these timeless stories or to introduce them to young people. One of America's greatest writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote these versions of stories about Pandora, Medusa, Hercules, King Midas and the host of gods and goddesses that make up the Greek pantheon. The language is evocative and colorful yet easily understandable. You needn't worry if your high school teacher's assigned reading of "The Scarlet Letter" bored you to tears, as this collection of stories is filled with exciting adventures and vivid characters. I love the beautiful illustrations in this book. They were done by Walter Crane, one of the most popular illustrators of children's books in the late 19th century. The paintings are in the Pre-Raphaelite style in full color. The decorations at the beginning of each chapter are filled with Victorian charm and make this new editon seem like a well-loved antique. There are many excellent anthologies of the Greek myths on the market but rarely will you find one that utilizes such substantial talents as those employed by Hawthorne and Crane or that so thoroughly draw the reader in to the romantic and turbulent world of heroes, maidens and the capricious deities who stir their fates. I highly recommend this book. It is a classic that will enrich the mind and heart of a young reader and open the way for further discovery.

This is a remarkable book, with rich detail in both illustration and prose. Particularly wonderful for reading aloud together, my sons enjoyed this book through several years, and asked for the stories often.

Adventures of the Rat Family is one of Verne's most unusual stories, in which he diverged from his usual formula to write his only fairy tale and one of his few pure fantasies. First published in France over a century ago, it is now published in an elegant children's edition by Oxford University Press (72 pp., ...). Included are all 17 original color illustrations by Felician Myrbach-Rheinfeld, reproduced from the January 1891 holiday issue of the fashionable Parisian journal Le Figaro illustre.

Adventures of the Rat Family was not published in book form until after Verne's death, with the
appearance of the 1910 anthology Yesterday and Tomorrow, containing only a few of the engravings and a text revised by Verne's son, Michel, his literary executor. The Oxford edition is
the first time that Adventures has been published in book form in any language with all of the original illustrations.

As Adventures of the Rat Family attests, Verne's writing is far more diverse than his reputation as the father of science fiction suggests. He wrote more than 60 novels, as well as numerous short stories, plays, articles and poems, covering a range of genres and literary forms. He was actually most prolific in the genres of adventure, mystery and comedy.

Adventures of the Rat Family deals with evolution, a problematic and controversial idea when the story first appeared in 1891, and one that was surely prohibitive for American publishers. This was especially true since Adventures of the Rat Family was also one of Verne's few stories accessible to a very young audience. However, like many fairy tales, its larger significance requires more sophisticated adult reading.

Verne portrays a magical movement up and down the evolutionary ladder, as a close-knit family of rats is transformed into various lower forms of life, from mollusks to birds. The instigator of these deeds is a genie, hired by a cruel prince who desires the family's daughter, although she loves another.

Verne both recognizes and mocks the idea of evolution by having his characters change from one species to another, finally making a metamorphosis into men and women. Added amusement is
provided by one cousin who never quite catches up as he makes each transformation, always retaining a feature of his previous incarnation, until finally he has a donkey's tail even after
becoming a man.

Verne had long been interested in evolution and basically accepted the theory. His 1858 play, M. de Chimpanze (untranslated), is of a chimp that readily adapts to high society, and a giant prehistoric man is sighted in Journey to the Center of the Earth. Verne portrays a "missing link" species in his 1901 novel, The Aerial Village, and speculates that the tribe will be incorporated into an imperial colony. "The Humbug" is the story of a P.T. Barnum-like character whose successful hoax convinces New Yorkers that he has unearthed the bones of early man near Albany.

By cloaking his use of the evolutionary theme within the fantasy of Adventures of the Rat Family, Verne hoped to circumvent disapproval of his more serious and controversial subtext. He had first related the story during a European lecture tour in 1887, and he was so delighted with the idea that he enlarged it into a novella. He cleverly imbued it with his satirical expertise, lending it a light touch that concealed much of its bite. Verne was skilled in comedy, especially when it involved bizarre characters in unusual locales, as demonstrated by his treatment of the stuffy British travelers in Around theWorld in 80 Days.

Adventures of the Rat Family is a rewarding, one-of-a-kind story that will be enjoyed in different ways by all ages.

This is an excellent book on an important subject. I sincerely wish it was still around. Self-esteem and a positive self-concept for children of color, especially African-American children are still areas that need a lot of work. Our world is still consumed with an abundant amount of negative images and stereotypes of people of color. This book is wonderful in counteracting that, covering all areas of life; art, athletics, academics, social. It confronts the emotional needs of our children. Every home, school and library should have a collection of the stories and letters found in this book. I will certainly use it in my classroom. I wish I had the gift of prose so that I could properly give the type of review this book deserves. Not only is it appropriate for use as a tool in helping children to realize their self-worth, it's also a wonderful item for those who wish to collect African-American artifacts but cannot afford the more costly items. The book contains stories and poems written by known writers and by "ordinary" children of 1920-21. It also contains letters from "enquiring" minds. Again, it made me wish I could own the whole collection, not just the best of.

I was brought up with the rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock" but it appears in this book as "Dickory Dickory Dock". Perhaps someone out there could explain this different version.

Overall, I like the lovely illustrations, large collection of rhymes (some I have never seen before) and creative layout of the words, however my toddler prefers the Lamaze boardbook of Mother Goose with its durable, easy-to-flip pages. Also, the illustrations, though lovely and imaginative, are a bit sophisticated for the youngest readers. For instance, Humpty-Dumpty is not an egg-shaped character but a tiny, faceless, edible white-shelled egg. Jack and Jill are rabbits not children as are most of the other traditionally human characters.

My advice is to buy this book for its extensive collection of rhymes and beautiful and artistic illustrations, BUT you may want a simple, traditional Mother Goose on hand as well for daily reading.

My son is 18 months old and absolutely loves this wonderful book. He enjoys having any book read to him, but Mother Goose's frequent references to the sun, moon, stars (all favorites topics to my son)and Rosemary Wells' charming illustrations of bunnies, kitties, etc. add up to pure reading fun at our house. These nursery rhymes aren't too intense (some Mother Goose can be downright scary), and are just the right length for a 1- to 2-year old's attention span. And I enjoyed getting to know some nursery rhymes I missed out on as a child (Wibbleton to Wobbleton is a hoot). A few of the book's pages have been ripped in my son's enthusiasm for the subject matter, but this book is a nice change from our dozens of board books at home. I highly recommend this book for toddlers who enjoy being read to and for parents who love to do the reading.

This book may keep Mother Goose nursery rhymes alive for many more generations to come. I was not particularly drawn to Mother Goose books - many of the rhymes I could remember seemed irrelevant to me. But this book has changed my view. My 3 1/2 year old son and I read it together regularly - he now chants the rhymes along with me. The collection is so well done, with rhymes you'd be happy to read to any child (none of the violent or gory rhymes), and the illustrations are utterly perfect & add tremendously to the content of the rhymes. We have shelves full of children's books, but I would put this in the top 2 or 3 - this is a classic.

This book helps children make the transition in reading poetry from the beloved Dr. Suess to reading more sophisticated writing. My children loved the rhymes, and related to the stories. Like Robert Louis Stevenson in A Child's Garden of Verses, Langston Hughes captures childhood in his verses. Many current writers of children's poetry appeal to children using gross stories of bodily functions and gum in the hair. Langston Hughes gives kids more credit than that, but still appeals to children. What kid hasn't wanted to look down on "those stuck up clowns" in real life? This book was entertaining, and made my children want to hear more from this author.

This book is a wonderful tribute to one of America's finest poets. The book appeals to both children and adults. The poems are whimsical and fun. In my own classroom, the children list these poems as some of their favorites. The art work inspires my students to achieve as much as they can in their own art work. The introduction and afterward provide the reader with a history of the Harlem art's movement and Langston Hughes' contribution to this movement. The information provided could be shared with children, however it is written for advanced readers. Overall, this book is one of the most well thought out books that I have seen.

Although I enjoyed this book as a Langston Hughes fan, I was not sure that the children's artwork and Hughes' poetry would be appreciated by children. However, my 5-yr-old clearly responds to the rhyming text and enjoys the art. I've overheard him reciting lines from this book by memory. The rhythym is soothing and the children's art is charming. This is not Hughes at his most profound- (couldn't he have chosen "walrus" to star on the "w" page instead of a white mouse?) and does not teach kids much about the alphabet ("m" is for monkey, but we never hear that word in the poem, instead the monkey's name- "jocko"), but it will appeal to their sense of rhyme and whimsy. I'm leaving it 5 stars because of the beautiful art and catchy poems.