The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose

by Arnold Lobel, Mother Goose

Knopf is proud to reissue the complete and unabridged Arnold Lobel-illustrated treasury of Mother Goose rhymes, originally published in 1986 as The Random House Book of Mother Goose and unavailable for several years. Reviewers were unanimous in their acclaim of a collection "brimming over with energy...distinguished by abundant humor and a rich variety of moods and styles" (School Library Journal, starred review). The beloved creator of the Frog and Toad books included 306 nursery rhymes—several hundred more than any other quality edition of Mother Goose—and "all are illustrated in a cornucopia of drawings which demonstrates the range of [his] technique and imagination" (Kirkus Reviews). The New York Times Book Review called it "brilliant," while The Washington Post Book World praised it as "surely one of the most satisfying nursery-rhyme books ever made."

An illustrated collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, including well-known ones such as "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep" and "Little Boy Blue" and less familiar ones such as "Doctor Foster went to Gloucester" and "When clouds appear like rocks and towers."

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Picture Books, Nursery Rhymes, Classics, School, Fairy Tales

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Arnold Stark Lobel was a popular American author of children's books. Among his most popular books are those of the Frog and Toad series, and Mouse Soup, which won the Garden State Children's Book Award from the New Jersey Library Association.

Reviews

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it. This is THE Mother Goose Collection for us! We all (Kindie, Y2, & Y4) loved the selections & illustrations.

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arnold Lobel's illustrations make this more appealing to me than the classic "Real Mother Goose" version, especially since there is at least a small illustration for every single rhyme.

We really enjoyed reading through this volume over the course of a school year. There was enough silliness to keep my kids engaged, and it was nice when we occasionally came to some that I knew the tune for (thanks to listening to "Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies" as a kid"). There were also quite a few I'd never heard before, which is to be expected.

As would be the case for any literature this old, cultural differences may require some explaining -- there are some occasional references to death/injury, corporal punishment, and what we would probably consider odd practices today such as courtship rituals and gender roles, etc., so it's worthwhile for parents/teachers to be aware of this, but overall this book was a lot of fun and a nice way to build vocabulary as well as cultural literacy.

Update: it was fun to read through this again three years later. My six-year-old enjoyed it for the first time, and my eight-year-old had probably forgotten a lot of it from our first go-round.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pictures are five stars but the rhyme selections are three stars.

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love these nursery rhymes!

[Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this compilation feels complete, full of all the well-known Mother Goose rhymes of my childhood in addition to many more that were brand new to me, I still felt it was just "good" in terms of enjoyment. Mother Goose remains classic, leaving me compelled to want to like it and leave a better rating/review.

But the truth is that the readability of it with a Kindergarten student seemed a little difficult in parts. Some pieces were downright silly and left us laughing (my son loved the tongue-twisters!), while others were confusing due to language and cultural practices that I'm sure have been lost in translation over time.

One pro with this storybook, is the ability to leave off and pick up as you wish. We sometimes read 20 pages, others only 2. It lends to very flexible reading.

This is not a bad book, by any stretch. I would still recommend this for young children as it lays a great literary foundation. I would even read it again with another child, but I would appreciate it for what it is and have to be okay with what it is not.

*Note for parents or teachers: There are a few minor things that some adults may wish to be prepared for ahead of time, such as a drawing of a naked character (I believe from behind) and references to mean spirited things, such as fighting and killing. There are also many references to characters being ugly and unable to find a wife/husband. While this is perhaps expected from writings of past eras, I know it is a focus that some families may wish to avoid or discuss with their children.

[Thompson McLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is considered the most concise and best collection of nursery rhymes with over 300 entries with brilliant illustrattions by Arnold Lobel. Lobel has little known rhymes like "Hector Protector" and "This Is the Key to the Kingdom" alongside more common ones like "London Bridge" and "Jack and Jill." You may think you know "London Bridge" and "Jack and Jill," but Lobel includes the entire rhyme and you'll be surprised to learn you've been missing entire pieces of the stories.

There is so much to see and learn in this lovely compendium of rhymes that young readers will beg, "Just one more! Read one more!" Don't read this as a goodnight book unless you want to be up all night!

Complete with an index of first lines and their corresponding page numbers, readers can easily find a rhyme they're searching for.



Highly, highly recommended for all collections of poetry and rhyme and this treasure, The Arthur Lobel Book of Mother Goose, should be on every child's bookshelf! All ages but start this bohttps://www.goodreads.com/review/edit... early with toddlers. Early readers will love the rhymes and learn a whole new vocabulary.

[Daniel Hojan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose: A Treasury of More Than 300 Classic Nursery Rhymes
By: Arnold Lobel

Reading level: K
Grade Level: K

Summary: This book is a collection of over 300 nursery rhymes and numerous charming illustrations that accompany them.

Genre: Traditional Lit.

Mentor Writing Trait:
Sentence Fluency:
This book, as one would expect for a book of nursery rhymes, is excellent in teaching the concept of sentence fluency to students. Each rhyme flows melodically as I read it, especially when read aloud. In reading these rhymes, I often created little melodies to accompany each one as a read aloud to myself. It is perfect for students to learn about the joy of the musicality that can come from writing. The best writing flows as goes, drawing the audience into its melody of smoothly constructed sentences that come together to create something pleasing to the mind's ear. Students can practice listening for that quality by picking and sharing a favorite rhyme with the class. Bonus points if they make up a song to go with it.

[Min · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a copiously illustrated work of nursery rhymes of many lengths, from one sentence, to a few pages.
There are several of which I don't know. A sample of the ones I liked:

Gray goose and gander,
Waft your wings together
And carry
the good king's daughter
over the one-strand river
_____

There was an old woman tossed up in a basket
nineteen times as high as the moon
where she was going I couln't but ask it,
for in her hand she carried a broom.

"old woman, old woman, old woman," said I.
"O whither, o whither, o whither, so high?"
"to brush the cobwebs off the sky!
and I'll be back again by and by."
________
If you wish to live and thrive,
Let the spider walk alive.
-------------

[TaNazia Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel this book is a lot for younger kids and they wouldn't really be interested in reading it. This book is full of different nursery rhymes and the illustrations are somewhat the same. It looks like the author illustrated all of the pictures using the same kind of pencil or whatever was used. I feel this book is very overwhelming because it has so many pages and nursery rhymes to read for a younger kid. This book is for older kids in my opinion, I would say around 4th grade I bekieve they would enjoy the book more.

[Jasmine Stocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this book was a blast from the past. My mother always read me the Mother Goose rhymes. I feel these are the most traditional literature can get. Each illustration brings the little rhymes to life. For younger students, one could read one a day or learn one over a week time period. Traditional literature is very important because it tells stories that many people know and remember.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is included in the Bookshark Level A curriculum. It was a great compilation of both well known and new to us Mother Goose nursery rhymes. My only complaint is that it is a very long book and at times felt like it was never going to end. There should be a balance in a compilation to make the book not feel overwhelming and this one did start to feel a bit overwhelming.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book of Nursery Rhymes, some I had never heard. Pretty cool

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the longest version of mother goose that I have read so far and I really enjoyed it I loved seeing such a wide variety of poems was very enjoyable.

[Adelina Foughty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it!

[Taylor Kundel-Gower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Lobel's illustrations accompanying some of my favorite nursery rhymes, plus many I hadn't heard before.

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Mother Goose ever. I adore Arnold Lobel's illustrations. Read cover to cover during morning time with the kids.

[Mary T · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read through this as a family over the course of multiple months. It was fine -- nothing extraordinary -- still Mother Goose rhymes but with Arnold Lobel illustrations.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

These images and pairings never failed to surprise me, with Lobel’s slightly absurd takes.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My students said, "What? I thought it was Mother Bruce?"

[Sam McKillop]

1. There are no awards for this book.
2. This book is appropriate to read to PreK and K children but in sections, not all at once.
3. Out of the 306 nursery rhymes in this book, I read the first 10. Most of them were short two line nursery rhymes. Some were rhyming and some were not. There was also a tongue twister in there as well. There were all classic nursery rhymes.
4. The illustrations were very detailed and went with each of the nursery rhymes but I think there were too many nursery rhymes per page. And even though the pictures were extremely detailed, they did not keep my attention so I do not think they would be able to keep the attention of the students. I'm not sure the book itself would be good to use for read-alouds but maybe if the teacher copied the page she/he wanted and use that it might be more beneficial.
5. One activity is to read a nursery rhyme and have the students make their own illustrations for it. They could also make it into a picture book about that nursery rhyme. They could also maybe act out some of the nursery rhymes.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Random House Book of Mother Goose, selected and illustrated by Arnold Lobel. (Random House, 1986). 173 p. Mother Goose picture book.

Summary: Arnold Lobel selects over 300 nursery rhymes, both familiar and obscure. He creates a unique illustration for each one, no matter how short or how long.

Critique: a) Lobel’s unique take on these traditional nursery rhymes is found in his exhaustive collection of illustrations. Ranging from tiny framed drawings, to full-sleeve pictures, Lobel’s pencil and watercolor illustrations are sometimes predictable, but more often create an image rarely conceived, even in these well-known rhymes. Truly, the shape of several of the illustrations lend themselves to the shape of the actual text.

b) Several of Lobel’s illustrations find their uniqueness in an unusual perspective. There are a handful of illustrations in which Lobel uses the meter or theme of the rhyme to dictate the shape of the illustration. It is this style of illustration combined with the text that makes this book stand out among the numerous publications featuring Mother Goose rhymes.

c) Among the 300+ rhymes illustrated, a few stand out in their perspective. In “There Was a Little Green House” (p. 7) Lobel’s depiction of the houses inside each other in a stair-step fashion, angled down towards the text, gives a unique but pleasing effect. In the fantastic full-sleeve illustration of “Wee Willie Winkie” (p. 56) the book is turned vertically, and the towers of the houses and buildings fill the entire height of the pages, with only Willie, tiny towards the bottom. In the illustration of “Solomon Grundy,” (p. 97) Lobel creates a stair-step pedestal to draw the readers’ eyes up and down the stairs with the meter of the text. The beginning of the rhyme is actually near the bottom, but follows the days of the week up and then down the stairs, only to end at the headstone of Solomon Grundy, “Buried on Sunday” under the tower.

Curriculum Connection: This book is an enjoyable read for any young readers. However, it would also be an interesting study of poetry methods for middle grade students.

[Lacey Luce]

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose
By Arnold Lobel
Lobel, A. (1986). The arnold lobel book of mother goose. New York: Random House.

1. Mother Goose Picture Book

2. This book contains all of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. There are over 306 timeless collections. It includes many well-known favorites with some other that might be new to you! Each rhyme is illustrated with a great style and humor.

3. Illustrations

b. The illustrations for this book are wonderfully drawn, and there is one for each nursery rhyme! No matter how short or how long there is an illustration for that nursery rhyme. The illustrations are wonderfully colored and really capture the essences of the nursery rhyme. This book has everything from the littler pigs going to the market to the 12 days of Christmas.

c. My favorite illustration is to my favorite nursery rhyme, There was an old woman who live in a shoe. The illustration takes up a whole two page spread because this woman had sooooo many children living with her. The picture just truly captures the nursery rhyme and also adding some humor and silliness to it as well.

4. Every classroom needs to have a good Mother Goose book. This is that book it contains all mother goose nursery rhymes. There can be so many literacy lessons that can be based off of nursery rhymes. It could be easy to pick a rhyme of the week and stem many of the literacy lessons off that nursery rhyme.

[Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: This is a comprehensive book of Mother Goose Rhymes that includes popular poems like "Humpty Dumpty" and more obscure ones like "I Love Coffee". They are indexed by subject.

Critique: Humor. It is easy to see why this book won the Caldecott Medal for Illustrations. The poems alone range from interesting to scary, but without the illustrations, they would remain so.

Example: For example, "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary" is illustrated very literately with little maids sprouting all in a row. It's very funny. I also enjoyed that some of the scarier tales were not sanitized from the book - including the old woman who lived in a shoe.

Curricular Ties: This book would be fun for younger children to learn rhymes along with the specious moral tales. However, older children should revisit this book in conjunction with studies on the middle ages to understand the context of such rhymes as "Ring Around the Rosie", "Humpty Dumpty", and "London Bridge".

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edited and illustrated by Arnold lobel, 173 pages


Summary: this Caldecott winner is a collection of familiar and traditional mother goose tales, with the illustrations and rhymes humorously connected.

Critique:

A) illustrative style
B) lobel uses a traditional, yet humorous style in order to describe and convey what each nursery rhyme is portraying. The reader will be able to see that the illustrations are completely balanced with the text.
C) specifically, on page 17 , Lobel illustrates the familiar ( and my favorite!) Little Miss Muffet. Lobel illustrates the most humorous part of the poem, when the spider spooks miss Muffet. Through her facial expressions and the movement of the dog, lobel creates an illustration pleasing to the reader.


Curriculum connection : this is a wonderful mother goose read for any early childhood classroom. The illustrative styling of lobel makes the poems come alive, and would be a fabulous read aloud.

[Rebecca Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

1.) Genre- Mother Goose Picture Book

2.) Summary- This book is a collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

3.)a.) Area of focus- Illustrations

3.)b.) The illustrations are really what sets this Mother Goose book apart from others. Every page is covered with detailed and carefully construed pictures to help readers understand the rhymes.

3.)c.) The examples of illustrations for this book are endless, but page 42 represents the rhyme of: Mary, Mary, quite contrary. Here the reader can easily see the meaning behind the poem--the silver bells and cockleshells, and maids all in a row.

4.) Curriculum Connections- While Mother Goose books may seem old fashioned to some, they do play an important role in the classroom. Mother Goose rhymes are often a child's first introduction to non-prose styles of literature. As such, Mother Goose books could be used to teach rhyme scheme or basic poetry elements.

[Lisa Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of Arnold Lobel, but I didn't care for this version of Mother Goose. There was a wonderful variety of rhymes to read. Many were remembered from my own childhood and many I had never heard of before. I didn't enjoy the artwork as much as I thought I would. The colors were too dark and dreary for my taste, especially since some Mother Goose rhymes are on the dark side to begin with. I prefer brighter, more colorful illustrations. I like how the picutes have a vintage tone to them, but it would have made it more enjoyable if the colors were brighter.

[Emmie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, what can I say about this book? It's Mother Goose and the more I read Mother Goose, the weirder I think it is. This book is fine for a Mother Goose anthology with lots of poems and rhymes to teach from. The pictures are also fun and colorful. The kids really enjoyed reading them and laughing at the absurdity of most of them.

I'll give it 4 stars because my kids liked it and it was a very full book of nursery rhymes, though I personally did not care for it because I don't like this kind of thing.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ahh. More nursery rhymes. Again, some I'm familiar with and yet they were not as I knew them. Quite a few that I have never heard before. Illustrations are much better than Cousins', though there were a couple I was a bit shocked to see there. Is it that I'm not a fan of nursery rhymes, or that I'm just not meant to read the book cover-to-cover. Well, what ever it may be, if I want my children to know/hear nursery rhymes, then they can learn them the same why I did--without pictures.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

We really enjoyed this Mother Goose book.
For one, it is HUGE! Tons of rhymes.
For two, the illustrations are great. A lot of times, you see the picture and it reminds you just how absurd most of these poems are. The pictures also help with context clues for some of the words that aren't used in mainstream English anymore.
My daughter enjoyed recognizing some of the poems from other books we've read.

[Ariel Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The genre for the book is poetry and the intended age range is elementary school.

This book is a collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

Nursery rhymes can be used for rhythm and patterns in words.

The book is wonderful to read to kids, especially at night time before bed.

The cover of the book and the illustrations allow the reader to get an understanding of the nursery rhyme itself.