Mother Goose

From the Publisher

Long's lush, detailed drawings... weave in the sensuality of the natural world. To bring an order to a generous selection of over 70 verses, she has often linked images. The illustrations are stunning. New York Times Book Review

San Francisco Chronicle

It's a visual feast with cleverly connected page designs serving up kinder and gentler reinterpretations of many old favorites.

New York Times Book Review

Long's lush, detailed drawings...weave in the sensuality of the natural world...To bring an order to a generous selection of over 70 verses, she has often linked images...the illustrations are stunning...

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In a thoughtful opening note, Long (Liplap's Wish) explains that she saw no point in creating a new Mother Goose collection "unless I could find ways to make it unique." She fulfills her mission in various ways: she includes a number of lesser-known rhymes, and she imaginatively softens what she calls "the more frightening images." Thus in "Humpty Dumpty," the egg that cracks open when it falls off a wall hatches a duckling, and the "baby" rocking perilously in the treetop is a young bird who flies to safety as the bough breaks. Long also notes that in one case, "The Old Woman in the Shoe," she has mitigated the suggestion of violence by changing the words; here her mother is a spider who doesn't spank her brood, but rather serves them broth and bread and "kissed them all sweetly/ And put them to bed." Working in her characteristic pen-and-watercolor style, Long conjures up winsome animal characters. She carefully suggests the texture of their fur or feathers, but she also kits them out in humorous garb (the cow who jumps over the moon wears a tutu and ballet shoes; nimble Jack is a frog in a tuxedo, and he leaps from one roof to another, over a lamppost lit by a candle). She links the rhymes inventively, particularly when she devises a single illustration to encompass two rhymes. For example, the jubilant frog who recites a relatively obscure verse that celebrates "a rainy day/ In the month of May" dances atop a lily pad; sitting near him, a mouse seeks shelter under other greenery and sings, "Rain, rain, go away." A robin's-egg blue ribbon that serves as a bookmark adds extra elegance to this handsome production. All ages. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature - Heidi Green

The dust jacket for this book shows a pumpkin from the outside. Animals are inside, and one is reading a book to some others. Remove the dust jacket, and the book's cover shows the same scene, but from inside the pumpkin. This is just the beginning of Sylvia Long's "slight of eye." Her rendition of these familiar rhymes is replete with visual play. There are connections in the illustrations for Long's chosen rhymes (for example, the hat Mother Goose is wearing in "Cackle, Cackle, Mother Goose" appears as a wall decoration in "Rock-a-Bye, Baby"). This edition of Mother Goose would make a terrific gift; Long's charming illustrations and clever visual connections will keep children coming back for more.

Children's Literature - Children's Literature

Rhythm and rhyme are adored by toddlers and the reigning monarch is, of course, Mother Goose. She makes a lovely contemporary appearance in this very complete collection that brims with colors and whimsy, and is rendered with an old-fashioned style that gives it an heirloom quality. 1999, Chronicle, Ages 4 to 8, $19.95. Reviewer: Susie Wilde

Library Journal

PreS-K-Human beings are replaced by animals, reptiles, and insects, all elegantly dressed, in this exuberant nursery-rhyme collection, which includes 82 familiar and less familiar verses. The artist's avowed purpose is to keep the classic phraseology but soften some of the distressing images with her interpretive pictures. For example, Humpty Dumpty becomes a clutch of duck eggs hatching as they tumble from the wall and the baby on the treetop is a fledgling ready to leave the nest. The luminous, lively, full- and double-page ink-and-watercolor illustrations are seen from a variety of perspectives, and the rhymes are arranged in many different ways on the pages. Other creative touches include a spoon-billed stork running away with the dish and Jack Spratt as a small frog and his wife as a large toad. The juxtaposition of similar themes such as "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and "Little Boy Blue" and "Peter Piper" and "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" adds to the fun. Even if your library's collection of nursery rhymes is already extensive, you will want to add this large and lovely volume.-Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.