Sunday, March 14, 2010

Children's Book Monday (and a winner!)

First things very, very first...


From a big, blue bowl my blue-eyed boy wearing blue pajamas drew the name of...



...my sweet friend, Kristin!

Gideon just wanted to make sure his buddy, Benjamin, could have exactly the book he wanted! We are thrilled to send a new book winging your way...

And now, on to this week's gem!

The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles
by Maud and Miska Petersham








I confess to being far more in love with the illustrations in this book than the rhymes and jingles... such adorable artwork! But the songs and poems do enhance this book's beauty.

The table of contents has a wonderful clue towards what you can expect from the pages:

Rhymes and Jingles
Finger Games
Rope Skipping Rhymes
Counting-Out Rhymes
Games
Yankee Doodle
I tried (valiantly, I assure you!) to find some of the illustrations online so that I could give you a taste, but was unsuccessful. So, you must trust me! Won't you? Click on the cover picture... mmmmmm!

Many of these rhymes are already familiar to us all, but the new (to us) illustrations breathe fresh life into them. Some twists on old favorites evoked shouts of laughter from my children~

Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was black as tar.
And everywhere that Mary went
They thought it was a b-a-a-r.
See? Oh, my. Such a good laugh! Or, how about this one:

I eat my peas with honey,
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on my knife!
Oh, our aching sides! After we shudder and gag a little bit, of course.

We love the old train engines, black coal smoke puffing out of the smokestacks; eighteenth century daddies in their "ponytails" (Eliana says, That's John Adams, Mama!) trotting little ones on their legs for the Trot, Trot to Boston rhyme.

Rope skipping rhymes are a whole new world to Eliana- a jump rope is now on our summer list of activity toys! We've already learned a couple and trot around the house, hopping and singing and generally being quite silly. As for the finger games, we know most of them already (Here is the church, here is the steeple) and with the boys' piano lessons they've pounded out Two Little Blackbirds so many times, we even know the tune! But the accompanying illustrations, once again, give a "newness" to these rhymes and they're interesting all over again!

As with any book that holds nursery rhymes, there may be a couple we find ourselves wanting to skip over- i.e. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7- All good children go to heaven! (true in its most basic nature, but perhaps opens up dialogue for a theology lesson?), or Lazy Mary (won't get out of bed until Mother promises her a nice young man with rosy cheeks!) but as a whole the book has been pulled out of the spring box on the nature table during so many lunch times, I am afraid for it's currently unsticky pages... perhaps we'll find one of our own and save the library's copy from a much-loved but unfortunate doom.

All in all, a wonderful choice to add to your library list this week. Highly recommended! I can just imagine the laughter and rope-skipping filling your homes very soon!

Happy Reading!

5 fellow travelers shared:

Anonymous said...

"I am afraid for it's currently unsticky pages... perhaps we'll find one of our own and save the library's copy from a much-loved but unfortunate doom."

I love this and understand it too well!

This book sounds like fun! Thanks, Elise!

Kristin said...

This books sounds delightful. And cheery! Off to check the library's online catalog. :-)

Linda said...

I can just picture all of you laughing, skipping and singing through the house Elise :-) Such fun.
I know what you mean about illustrations. I scour the childrens' book shelves in the book stores looking for books illustrated by Eloise Wilken. I could sit and look at them over and over again.
Continue having fun!!!

Amy Redelsperger said...

How fun! Can't wait to see if our library has it, and if they don't I'll check my swap site. Stay tuned because I'm reviewing it tomorrow! It's SO fantastic! Hope you don't mind if I link to your Children's Book posts!
Love you friend!

Mindy said...

Hi friend. I am blogging again. Just thought you might want to know...

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