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56th out of 66 books
—
18 voters
Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists
First Second is very proud to present Nursery Rhyme Comics. Featuring fifty classic nursery rhymes illustrated and interpreted in comics form by fifty of today’s preeminent cartoonists and illustrators, this is a groundbreaking new entry in the canon of nursery rhymes treasuries. From New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast’s “There Was a Crooked Man” to Bad Kitty author Nick Bru
Hardcover, 128 pages
Published
October 11th 2011
by First Second
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I gotta be honest - I wanted more from this.
It's an impressive undertaking. Most of the contributions are supershort - on average one spread - and getting all these superstar comic artists to draw for this must have been quite a job. The production is lovely - every comic is lavishly colored, even though the book includes a crazy variety of visual styles.
But.
I wanted more interpretation here. More embellishment. More playing. Too many of these are relatively straight illustrations of the mondof...more
It's an impressive undertaking. Most of the contributions are supershort - on average one spread - and getting all these superstar comic artists to draw for this must have been quite a job. The production is lovely - every comic is lavishly colored, even though the book includes a crazy variety of visual styles.
But.
I wanted more interpretation here. More embellishment. More playing. Too many of these are relatively straight illustrations of the mondof...more
I’m not a big reader of graphic novels although I’ve been trying to remedy that. And, one of the standout writers of that genre has been Gene Luen Yang of “American Born Chinese” and “The Eternal Smile”. It was while checking on what other things he’s written that I ran across “Nursery Rhyme Comics”.
This is an anthology where cartoonists had free reign to re-imagine nursery rhymes. I was surprised by how many illustrators I recognized- like Patrick McDonnell, Nick Bruel, Jules Feiffer, Craig Tho...more
This is an anthology where cartoonists had free reign to re-imagine nursery rhymes. I was surprised by how many illustrators I recognized- like Patrick McDonnell, Nick Bruel, Jules Feiffer, Craig Tho...more
With 50 nursery rhymes illustrated by an talented array of leading cartoonists, this book is a visual feast. Each cartoonist was asked by editor Chris Duffy to interpret a different nursery rhyme, one suited to their particular taste or style. The result is a humorous, often quirky collection of some old favorites and some lesser-known traditional rhymes. Some pairings play off the cartoonists’ reputations - Nick Bruel, well-known for his Bad Kitty series (Bad Kitty Takes a Bath, Roaring Brook,...more
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Nursery rhymes. What's up with that? (I feel like a stand up comedian when I put it that way). They're ubiquitous but nonsensical. Culturally relevant but often of unknown origins. Children’s literary scholar Leonard Marcus ponders the amazing shelf life of nursery rhymes himself and comes up with some answers. Why is it that they last as long as they do in the public consciousness? Marcus speculates that “the old-chestnut rhymes that beguile in part by sounding so emphatically clear about thems...more
I got a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. It was a very fun read and something that I think kids of all ages and adults will both enjoy.
There are a number (fifty to be exact) of nursery rhymes illustrated and retold in various ways. Some of them are just beautiful renditions of the nursery rhymes, some of them are ironic retellings, and some of them are fantastic re-imaginings.
For example Jack Be Nimble has a little boy making asides about how stupid you would have to be to jum...more
There are a number (fifty to be exact) of nursery rhymes illustrated and retold in various ways. Some of them are just beautiful renditions of the nursery rhymes, some of them are ironic retellings, and some of them are fantastic re-imaginings.
For example Jack Be Nimble has a little boy making asides about how stupid you would have to be to jum...more
This gorgeous collection of nursery rhymes, lavishly illustrated in full color by a handful of some of the best comic artists drawing is a feast for the eyes and the heart. I loved seeing my old favorites reinterpreted, some slyly (Stephanie Yue's Hickory Dickory Dock), some more broadly and humorously (Lucy Knisley's There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe). And while I loved Roz Chast's Crooked Man and Raina Telgemeier 's Georgie Porgie, my absolute favorite was
's melancholy Owl and Pussy...more
's melancholy Owl and Pussy...more
I think it's safe to say that most American children have experienced their fair share of nursery rhymes. I have memories of reciting them in preschool, and reading from a large hardcover book that collected and illustrated many of the most popular rhymes. Nursery Rhyme Comics takes the idea of the classic collection of nursery rhymes and updates it for our current graphic-novel hungry generation of youngsters. Each nursery rhyme is presented in comic strip form and runs from one to three pages...more
Genre: Graphic Novel, Junior book
Summary: This junior book takes the tried and true nursery ryhmes of old and breathes life back into them with a comic book edge.
A. This book would be great for students who are reluctant to read because of it grpahics and comic book style.
B. The reader gets to learn new and old nursery rhymes with the appearance like that of a comic strip. This makes each page so much more interesting and keeps the readers interest peaked.
C. Each nursery rhyme was a joy to read...more
Summary: This junior book takes the tried and true nursery ryhmes of old and breathes life back into them with a comic book edge.
A. This book would be great for students who are reluctant to read because of it grpahics and comic book style.
B. The reader gets to learn new and old nursery rhymes with the appearance like that of a comic strip. This makes each page so much more interesting and keeps the readers interest peaked.
C. Each nursery rhyme was a joy to read...more
Not for babies! This works as a humerous look at nursery rhymes for older children (and adults!) who like comics and sly humor. (this little piggy brings in a wolf for instance, and references vegetarianism.) Each rhyme has a different illustrator, so some work better than others depending on the artist's temperament and seeming grasp of the rhymes meaning. Those who've illustrated children's books before - like Jules Fieffer, Patrick McDonnell, etc. seem more in the spirit. Loved certain ones -...more
Apr 03, 2012
Sherry Philippus
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
new-children-s,
3-4-star-childrens-fiction
Clever, witty take on traditional children's rhymes! The "old lady launcher" pictured in the lesser known "There Was an Old Woman Tossed Up In A Basket" was a hoot...and "The Owl and the Pussycat" finally received a romantic-enough treatment. I adore Jan Brett's version too, but after all, dining with a runcible spoon and dancing by the light of the moon calls for a bit of...naughtiness, eh? ;) And who better to reinterpret the Three Little Kittens than Nick Bruel, Bad-Kitty style!
Imaginative,...more
Imaginative,...more
What a great book! I plan to add it at all of my libraries (4, count 'em, 4). There are so many wonderful things: the vibrant colors (how can this book only be $18.99?) the subject matter (today's kids often don't know nursery rhymes, because their parents didn't read to them or didn't have access to them), the variety of clever interpretations (I'll never look at tarts the same way again), and, above all, humor! I can see so many ways this book could be used with students. Imagine taking one of...more
4.5 stars! Oh, how I wish this was out when my two boys were young, instead of the more dully rendered editions I read to them. *sigh* Still, I am pleased for all of the parents out there now that can share this with their kids. Every single nursery rhyme is illustrated by a different artist, and there is a beautiful, dizzying array of them. There is so much to see and do, it will be quite a long time before a curious youngster is tired of looking through all the pictures.
Still, it can also prov...more
Still, it can also prov...more
I'm always kind of amazed when I find out how few nursery rhymes our students know. And I was down right ashamed when I realized my own child didn't know any - as much as I read to him, I've never read many nursery rhymes. That's why this book is so great - it has just about every nursery rhyme you can think of, plus some that you don't, illustrated by popular children's book illustrators in graphic novel format. At first I assumed that the rhymes might not be in their original formats- that the...more
Audience: I'd say this book could be read from any student in the range of K-4th grade, depending on their level of understand and comprehension, but ultimately, anyone who has heard of these old nursery rhymes will love this book.
Appeal: This book is very clever, humorous, and makes the old nursery rhymes into funny, charming pictures that are easier to be understood that just hearing them outloud. This book contains classic nursery rhymes, such as Hickory Dickory Dock, Three Blind Mice, and Th...more
Appeal: This book is very clever, humorous, and makes the old nursery rhymes into funny, charming pictures that are easier to be understood that just hearing them outloud. This book contains classic nursery rhymes, such as Hickory Dickory Dock, Three Blind Mice, and Th...more
Nov 02, 2011
Debbie Hoskins
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
classics,
archetypes,
intelligent,
love-the-illustrations,
poetic,
rock-star,
words-and-pictures
I found this on our new book shelf today.
Good job, First Second! Leonard S. Marcus is one of the words and pictures scholars and experts. I think kids do need to learn nursery rhymes as part of language and cultural development. Packaging them in a comics format makes them new, exciting, and inviting to kids who love this format. Of course picture book illustrators and cartoonists know how words and pictures work.
My personal favorites:
Patrick McDonnell, Stephanie Yue, Lilli Carre (e has an acc...more
Good job, First Second! Leonard S. Marcus is one of the words and pictures scholars and experts. I think kids do need to learn nursery rhymes as part of language and cultural development. Packaging them in a comics format makes them new, exciting, and inviting to kids who love this format. Of course picture book illustrators and cartoonists know how words and pictures work.
My personal favorites:
Patrick McDonnell, Stephanie Yue, Lilli Carre (e has an acc...more
I tend to be a little cynical about collections, whether they be of short stories, essays, music, or, as in this title, comics. If you have 10 contributions in a collection, it seems that one is going to be groundbreaking and brilliant, one will be lousy, one will be too obscure and full of itself, and the rest will be interesting and entertaining enough, but viewed collectively, don't do much to forward your appreciation or understanding of the unifying theme the collection is built around. The...more
You would think with so many different books of nursery rhymes in existence that there wouldn’t be space for yet another one. But you’d be wrong. First Second has hist the mark with this book that’s sure to be a new classic. They’ve gathered 50 of the best artists in the world to put their own unique twists on these old tales. The artists range from Patrick McDonnell (creator of Mutts) to Very Brosgol (Anya’s Ghost) to Mike Mignola (Hellboy) to my personal favorite (Lucy Knisley (French Milk.) E...more
Great idea to use graphic novel format to re-introduce older children to the classics. With so much else in their environment, too many of our children are coming to school with no knowledge of nursery rhymes!
I haven't read a lot of graphic novels yet, but it seems many of the cartoonists use images that would have disturbed me as a child:fierce faces, large teethy mouths, buggy eyes, and people always seem to be running. The general impression to me is one of angst, commotion, and turmoil. Giv...more
I haven't read a lot of graphic novels yet, but it seems many of the cartoonists use images that would have disturbed me as a child:fierce faces, large teethy mouths, buggy eyes, and people always seem to be running. The general impression to me is one of angst, commotion, and turmoil. Giv...more
An adorable, remarkably even collection of nursery rhyme comics by popular cartoonists/illustrators. The cartoonists subvert the text in unassuming ways, my favorite being a very small bit of Nick Abadzis' "Hey, Diddle Diddle!" The dish is portrayed as female, and the spoon male. I don't know what it is about the line, maybe because "the dish" runs away with "the spoon," playing on a cultural expectation of masculine leadership, but how did the yonic shape of the dish become a masculinely-depict...more
This unique compilation includes all the nursery rhymes you might know and love from childhood (and maybe some you don't)...but presented in a completely different way. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe with clones? Card-playing barn animals in Little Boy Blue? A rock band "The Whips" as part of There Was An Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe?
The more than 50 illustrators who contributed to this collection vary widely in their styles, a testament to how far the graphic novel genre has come. This book is a goo...more
The more than 50 illustrators who contributed to this collection vary widely in their styles, a testament to how far the graphic novel genre has come. This book is a goo...more
I saw a review of this book, and knew I had to have it for my own.
Each nursery rhyme in this book has been uniquely interpreted by the artists, some choosing to literally represent a traditional situation, some choosing to transplant the rhyme into a different time/place/planet.
The rhymes range from the common to the obscure. The art likewise varies from cartoony to the beautifully detailed and expressionistic. Not every rhyme will be a favorite, but there is enough variety that I think every r...more
Each nursery rhyme in this book has been uniquely interpreted by the artists, some choosing to literally represent a traditional situation, some choosing to transplant the rhyme into a different time/place/planet.
The rhymes range from the common to the obscure. The art likewise varies from cartoony to the beautifully detailed and expressionistic. Not every rhyme will be a favorite, but there is enough variety that I think every r...more
Everyone knows what a nursery rhyme is; many of us can still remember a number of them, or at least what they were about; and still a few more of us can recall certain nursery rhymes word for word; but ask any of us what they mean or how they got made up, and you’ll be greeted with a look of dumbfoundedness. What exactly is the deal with an egg falling off the wall, or two kids falling down a hill, or even a cow jumping over a moon?
In Nursery Rhyme Comics, the artists explore these familiar nurs...more
In Nursery Rhyme Comics, the artists explore these familiar nurs...more
This was incredibly well done and so much fun to read! Each nursery rhyme is interpreted and illustrated by a different cartoonist. Some are recognizable by their style (like the artist of Anya's Ghost and the author of Smile). Some of the nursery rhymes were very familiar, some had extended verses that I'd never heard before, and some were completely new to me. Some of the interpretations were completely different than anything I had ever imagined when hearing the words of the nursery rhyme. So...more
Fantastic! Some of these rhymes I hadn't heard in so long that I had a wave of nostalgia; others I sang to myself in my head. This collection offers a great spread of comics artists (and illustrators) working today, from Mike Mignola to Sara Varon. I especially enjoyed the many examples of how an artist can add more story between the well-known lines -- literally. This is a great introduction to the comics format that can be appreciated differently at different ages. Bonus: look carefully for a...more
Genius! 50 timeless nursery rhymes illustrated by 50 of the most talented illustrators! My personal favorite is "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" because the artist managered to reimagine this rhyme's negative ending and make it positive. Other favorites include: "Jack be Nimble," "The Owl & the Pussy-Cat," "Georgie Porgie," "Rock-a-bye Baby," "Yon Yonson," "Little Bo Peep," and "There Was a Little Girl." I'd recommend this for grades 3-6, though I think even teens would be intere...more
Book 39 of 1000
Probably one of the best things since sliced bread, This takes 50 classic nursery rhymes and has them interpreted by 50 artists. Major highlights include "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" by Stephanie Yue, "There was an Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe" by Lucy Kinsley, "Jack Be Nimble" by James Sturm, "George Porgie" by Reina Telegmeier and my personal favorite, "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Craig Thompson. While youngsters will enjoy this, the true entertainment comes from the interpretatio...more
Probably one of the best things since sliced bread, This takes 50 classic nursery rhymes and has them interpreted by 50 artists. Major highlights include "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" by Stephanie Yue, "There was an Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe" by Lucy Kinsley, "Jack Be Nimble" by James Sturm, "George Porgie" by Reina Telegmeier and my personal favorite, "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Craig Thompson. While youngsters will enjoy this, the true entertainment comes from the interpretatio...more
This is a strange little book, but so much fun! I had to snatch it off the new books cart before it went down to cataloging. An anthology of nursery rhymes told in comic form by some of the most well-known and talented comic artists around? Yes, please! A lot of the artists' names were familiar to me--Sara Varon, Gene Luen Yang, Raina Telgemeier, etc...--and some were new, including comic magazine artists, editors and those that primarily work in tv and film. This is a very diverse collection, t...more
This is such a great book!
Nursery Rhyme Comics is exactly what is sounds like - comics of classic nursery rhymes.
Some simply interpreted straight forward through art and some completely re-imagined, within the confines of the rhyme.
We all know nursery rhymes - we've repeated them over and over since we were kids and now I repeat them to my own children.
Which is what, I think, makes this book so great - the art that goes with the rhymes is so wonderful and thought out that it makes them seem fun...more
Nursery Rhyme Comics is exactly what is sounds like - comics of classic nursery rhymes.
Some simply interpreted straight forward through art and some completely re-imagined, within the confines of the rhyme.
We all know nursery rhymes - we've repeated them over and over since we were kids and now I repeat them to my own children.
Which is what, I think, makes this book so great - the art that goes with the rhymes is so wonderful and thought out that it makes them seem fun...more
I am such a sucker for graphic novel and comic collections. This collection has contributions from some pretty famous and awesome artists, including Nick Abadzis (Laika), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Jules Feiffer (The Phantom Tollbooth and Bark, George), David Macaulay (Cathedral), Patrick McDonnell (Mutts), Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo), Craig Thompson (Blankets), and Gene Yang (American Born Chinese).
So brilliant! The illustrations often include clever interpretations...more
So brilliant! The illustrations often include clever interpretations...more
Jan 11, 2013
Tim Lewis
added it
Premise: What happens when you take fifty of today’s cartoonists and you have them interpret and illustrate fifty classic nursery rhymes? You get a collection like this of reimagined stories for people of all ages.
You’ll see familiar stories such as Hey, Diddle Diddle, Little Boy Blue, and Jack and Jill, along with not so familiar (at least to me) such as The Donkey and For Want of a Nail, but each one puts a fresh spin on a classic story in only a few frames.
Themes: Many classic nursery rhymes...more
You’ll see familiar stories such as Hey, Diddle Diddle, Little Boy Blue, and Jack and Jill, along with not so familiar (at least to me) such as The Donkey and For Want of a Nail, but each one puts a fresh spin on a classic story in only a few frames.
Themes: Many classic nursery rhymes...more
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