Review of THE NEIGHBORHOOD MOTHER GOOSE

Bibliography:

Crew, Nina. 2004. The neighborhood Mother Goose. Illustrated by the author. New York: Green Willow Books. ISBN 0060515740

Review:

Nina Crews’ The Neighborhood Mother Goose is not your grandmother’s Mother Goose. This collection of forty-one nursery rhymes has been modernized through the addition of full-page photos taken of children who live and play in New York City. Instead of the familiar image of an old fashioned Jack jumping over a candlestick, Crews has edited a photograph so that a young boy is jumping over a candle perched on a cupcake. Images such as this will delight and entertain children as they turn the pages to see what happens next. Each scene is filled with action from the two girls playing “pat-a-cake” in front of a bakery to a group of children at a park holding hands and spinning in a circle to “Ring around the rosie”. The imagery encourages children to take an active part in enjoying these nursery rhymes. In addition to encouraging physical involvement with the poems, the natural rhyme and rhythm of each one makes reading them aloud a fun, almost musical experience. Children will want to clap to the beat or even join in singing “Twinkle, twinkle little star” and “The itsy-bitsy spider”. The Neighborhood Mother Goose is an excellent book to share both at home and at school. The combination of poems presented allows adults to read childhood favorites and introduce less familiar poems like “Dance, little baby, dance up high!” and “When I was a little boy, I washed my mother’s dishes.” A table of contents is included to direct readers to their favorites or to discover a “new” nursery rhyme. Grab a copy of Nina Crews’ The Neighborhood Mother Goose and continue the tradition of sharing these wonderful rhymes orally with the children you know.