My daughter was given a few of these Opie and Wells books andthey fare about "average" in her collection.

We (parents)would like them better if the verses weren't changed from what we remember. For example, instead of "Hickory Dickory Dock," they use "Dickory dickory dock."

An informal search on [a website] shows >1600 matches for "Hickory" and 9 for "Dickory," so the former is clearly more common. As best as we can determine, the original was published in 1744 as "Hickere, Dickere, Dock" in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book II by Mary Cooper. The French version has its opening: "Digerie, digerie, doge.")

Layout of some of the verses could be improved. For example, the first few times we read "The Big Ship Sails on the Alley Alley Oh," we didn't 'get' the rhythm because the verse is written vertically with awkward spacing. (In this instance, it's best to sing it as a song.)

On the plus side, we hadn't seen the "From Wibbleton to Wobbleton" rhyme before. Our daughter seems to like filling in the "fifteen miles."...

This book of simple rhymes and funny pictures can be read over and over. My one year old laughs out load, even though we've read the book hundreds of times.

This book of narrative verse is one of the best collections out in the market. The popular poems are included, from "The Pied Piper" to "Horatius," and the reader will be very pleased with this book. All the poems are presented in their entirety, but poems like Horatius have been shortened mercilessly. However, there is one negative point about this book. Most of the poems are serious poems and I think that the authors should include more light-hearted stuff, especially two narrative poems from T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," the inspiration for the hit musical "Cats." These two poems are "Growltiger's Last Stand" and "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles." These are the two poems that can make the book more light-hearted.

I knew my first son would love books when he gnawed his way through his first two board books. Now my second son is well on his way, both paging through and chewing on the sturdy board pages of this charming and colorful edition of Humpty Dumpty. Captivating rhythms and bright attention-getting illustrations are sure to delight any fan (child or adult) of Well's animal characters. Previous reviewers expressed concern about rhymes like "Davy Davy Dumpling" but before censoring this book, I'd ask them to think back to when your child was a plump and cuddly infant. How many times did you tickle him and say "I'm going to eat you up!" Did you really mean it? When you change a diaper are you "sugaring and buttering" your baby with powders and creams? I eat my baby up several times a day and it makes him laugh hysterically!

I am surprised to read the reviews. I do not care about rhymes and illustrations. What I care is if my kid loves it. She always asks me read to this books at least once in a day. She is so happy when I am reading this book for her. The thick pages are really important for small kids as they can not tear them off.

My daughter was given this book for her first birthday, and now that she is turning three, it is still her most treasured book. The illustrations are big and colorful, and the large text and one-rhyme-per-page format make it inviting even for the youngest listener. Iona Opie has done a wonderful job of selecting many familiar and some not-so-familiar rhymes to put in this collection. As a parent, I greatly appreciate the fact that all of these rhymes are gentle and loving, so I don't have to worry about "editing" the cruelty found in some other Mother Goose books. I can't say enough about this book except that every child should be lucky enough to own a copy.

I bought this to read to my 9 year old son. The language used in this book was very advanced. I found the difficulty level to be just a notch below the actual plays. I found a book called "Stories from Shakespeare" by Geraldine McCaughrean which was much better and my son is enjoying reading "Shakespeare".

Edith Nesbit is a wonderful writer, who keeps the integrity of the Shakespeare plays, and makes them understandable to young readers.

I read these stories to my boys, who love to hear all the tales of sword fights, king and queens, difficult lives, funny situations, and times of long ago.

For me, it has been a great overview of famous Shakespeare plays that seem to complicated to read through in their original form. This book gives you the core of the stories, so that later on , one could then read the original stories by the Bard of Avon.