Poetry Friday: Mother Goose's Little Treasures

Mother Goose's Little Treasures By Iona Opie. Illustrated by Rosemary Wells. 2007. Candlewick Press. 56 pages.

If you'd asked me I would have said I was a fan of Mother Goose. I mean, isn't Mother Goose one of those things you're supposed to like?! But I just didn't like Mother Goose's Little Treasures. Perhaps earlier books in the series might be better: My Very First Mother Goose (1996) and Here Comes Mother Goose (1999). Both of those are longer books, and they may be more substantive as well. Compiled of better known pieces I'd imagine.

This collection is supposed to be unfamiliar to readers. The point of the collection is to take us places we've never been. In the introduction, Opie writes, "The little treasures in this book are from the far edge of Mother Goose's realm; they belong to the land of More Beyond."

Here are a few examples:

Mrs Whirly sells fish,
Three ha'pence a dish.
Don't buy it,
don't buy it;
It stinks
when you fry it.

When the rain raineth
And the goose winketh,
Little knows the gosling
What the goose thinketh.

I found the rhymes in this collection to be odd for the most part. And not always odd in a charming, delightful way.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews