Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes: Another Favorite Collection

It is a long-held ruling in Judge John Hodgman's Fake Internet Court that "the difference between a collection and a hoard is DISPLAY."

These four are my favorite.  It's hard to beat Rosemary Wells
for charm, but Gyo Fujikawa pulls it off handily. 
And that Doug Hansen version is pretty incredible.

I definitely have my Mother Goose treasuries organized and in a proper place.  Buuuuuuuuuut I wish I had room to face them all out on display--because they are fabulous.  Right now they are stacked neatly by size in a corner of the book nook . . . right under my Fisher Price Western Town.

Haha, the Western Town gets played
with a lot, but it's a bit dusty

If I ever go back to university for some post-graduate work, I would love to write a master's thesis or even a doctoral dissertation on how Mother Goose rhymes have shaped generations, and study how that has changed as newer generations are increasingly unfamiliar with the old rhymes.  I have a lot of theories and questions and ideas about these rhymes and stories.

It's ironic that there have probably never been more versions or copies or illustrations of the rhymes in the world than now. . . but their real heyday (hey-diddle-diddle-day?) was when the rhymes were passed down orally.  After all, they are meant to be sung, chanted, repeated in a sing-song rhythm.  When Mother Goose was one of only a few children's books that families owned, no wonder everyone (in the Western, English-speaking world, anyway) knew so many of the rhymes: it was a treasured possession.  Now there are so many choices for children's books (a boon, for sure) that Mother Goose has wandered (on her gander) away from the interest (or perhaps the relevance?) of the general public.

But I have good memories of nursery rhymes.  I definitely knew them, growing up, and I vaguely remember my parents or maybe my Grandma Mollie reading them to me.  You don't really have to teach nursery rhymes--they kind of distill into your permanent memory after only a few repetitions.  I think that's why they have endured so long--some for hundreds of years!

I try not to buy the cheaply made, poorly illustrated
versions, of which there are plenty

Just like I did with my Night Before Christmas collection, I made a catalog of all my Mother Goose books in a google sheet, so I can access it any time I am at a thrift store--where, sadly, most nursery rhyme books have been relegated . . . 

But wait, not sadly, because then I can find them!

It's interesting to read the nursery rhymes that aren't so "mainstream." Most people know Little Miss Muffet, but not many have heard of The Kilkenny Cats.  Many of the rhymes are pretty disturbing (Old Roger), and more than one give me pause as an adult, with an ear for double-entendre that I didn't have as a child (hello, Hickety-Pickety My Black Hen!)

I love the different illustrations just as much as the poems themselves. My favorites are always illustrations of chickens, and I especially love different depictions of  The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. Here are some from my collection:  

This is UTTERLY my favorite, from Gyo Fujikawa. 
I can't even stand how charming and hilarious it is!

This is from Mother Goose in California, which is also
an alphabet book, and has THE BEST illustrations

And here are a few chicken rhymes and illustrations.  I love that nursery rhymes are often about everyday objects or themes in the lives of mothers, farmers, tradesman, peasants.  There are chickens and mice and pails of water, horseshoe nails and haystacks and visits to London, tea-time and harvest-time and bedtime.  It's a picture of life in the past, and many of the rhymes don't make sense--but it's incredible how often they still make sense--they are  constantly alluded to in our culture, even now.  

It's fun to collect, interesting to think about and study, and, ultimately, meaningful to share with children today.