From Elizabeth Kennedy,
Your Guide to Children's Books.
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In the last several years, many bookstores have had to allocate more and more shelf space to new Mother Goose books and reprints of old favorites. Many of these books are beautifully designed and illustrated. In some, Mother Goose is a goose; in others, she is an old woman who rides a goose. In either case, Mother Goose collections contain from about 50 to 300 traditional nursery rhymes, such as "Jack and Jill went up the hill," "Mary, Mary, quite contrary," "One, two, buckle my shoe," and "Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater."

What is the appeal of these nursery rhymes? Children find the rhymes and alliteration appealing and humorous. Many of the rhymes are short and easy for children to learn. Add to that the striking illustrations in the recent Mother Goose collections, and you can see why even a very young child would enjoy both words and pictures.

From an educator's perspective, nursery rhymes play an important role in a child's developing phonemic awareness. We tend to think that learning to read begins with learning the alphabet. However, children first need to be aware of the individual sounds that make up words. Nursery rhymes can help children develop that phonemic awareness.

Here is a quick look at some of the best in the newer crop of Mother Goose books as well as a look at several personal favorites. Published in 2000 by Chronicle Books, "Sylvia Long's Mother Goose" (compare prices) is filled with the artist's whimsical artwork featuring animals, done in pen and ink with watercolor. Clare Beaton's "Mother Goose Remembers" (compare prices) stands out because of the artist's hand-sewn illustrations, which utilize felt, linen, and other fabrics. It was published in 2000 by Barefoot Books. "My Very First Mother Goose" (compare prices) was published by Candlewick Press in 1996. It is a large and bright book, edited by Iona Opie, a Mother Goose rhyme expert, and illustrated by Rosemary Wells.

The only board book I would recommend is "Tomie's Little Mother Goose" (compare prices), which was illustrated by Tomie dePaola. The board book edition was published in 1997 by G.P. Putnam's Sons. I also like dePaola's "Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose" (compare prices), which was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1985. One of the reasons I like these two books is because people, rather than animals, are the focus of all of the illustrations.