A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes

A volume of classic children’s rhymes is a staple for school and public libraries as well as the home bookshelf. Many libraries may already own the 1998 edition of A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, () a charming anthology of traditional favourites.

For the 2018 edition, there is a new cover and a thoughtful introduction by the author explaining the divisions in the book. Four headings introduce material for advancing ages, from ‘Welcome, Little Baby” through ‘Toddler Time’ and ‘In the Schoolyard’ to ‘All Join In’. Included in the collection are Mother Goose ditties, finger plays and bounces and some original verse, such as “The Owl and the Pussycat”. Readers can also enjoy the folk story “This is the House that Jack Built” and play rhymes like “Skip to my Lou” and other well-known playground games.

Most entries are accompanied by a single softly-coloured picture: a wailing baby, a smiling mother, a dancing group of children. A few verses take up both pages of a spread. For example, “Lavender’s blue, diddle diddle, Lavender’s green” is juxtaposed with a dreamy pastoral scene of haying in the background and a napping family nearer by. As the review of the earlier edition appropriately noted, the figures offer some of the flavour of the early Maurice Sendak. (Kady MacDonald Denton has a number of picture books to her name. One of her first published works was Til All the Stars Have Fallen: Canadian Poems for Children.

There is an audio download available on the publisher’s website with all of the verses spoken in the precise British English accents of a smooth-voiced male or sung by a lively woman whose voice reminded me of Charlotte Diamond.

The book is rounded out with an index of title and first lines.

The last entry in the book is the following enigmatic (and unfamiliar to me) verse:

It’s time, I believe.
For us to leave:
The little dog says
It isn’t, it is, it isn’t, it is…

If you don’t already own A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, or your old copy is ready for replacement, buy it!