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Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard And Her Dog

Just as if they were happening on a Victorian stage, here are the humorous adventures of the legendary Old Mother Hubbard and her amazing canine friend.

32 pages, Library Binding

Published March 1, 1981

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About the author

Tomie dePaola

446 books921 followers
Tomie dePaola (pronounced Tommy da-POW-la) was best known for his books for children.

He had a five-decade writing and illustrating career during which he published more than 270 books, including 26 Fairmount Avenue, Strega Nona, and Meet the Barkers.

Tomie dePaola and his work have been recognized with the Caldecott Honor Award, the Newbery Honor Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the New Hampshire Governor's Arts Award of Living Treasure.

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5 stars
29 (27%)
4 stars
38 (36%)
3 stars
31 (29%)
2 stars
6 (5%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Billie.
930 reviews98 followers
February 10, 2020
I had forgotten how weird the verses got beyond the first one.
1,819 reviews11 followers
February 24, 2021
love nursery rhymes but they are a dying entity; wish words had been provided for the side panel vignettes, too
Profile Image for June.
622 reviews11 followers
September 27, 2024
"Most of what he did when she was gone wasn't even bad," my four-year-old pointed out.

My thought: It is not only cats who have nine lives.
124 reviews
May 20, 2025
😆😆😆

Hilarious! I have never read this version. What I have heard always ended when he was dead. I laughed so hard at the end. My 8th month old laughed at me laughing.
Profile Image for Shannon Ginley.
60 reviews
September 19, 2017
“The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog” by Tomie dePaola; published by Voyager Books, Harcourt Brace and Company; California and New York; copyright 1981
1. Awards this book received: This book has not received any awards.
2. Appropriate grade level(s): This book is appropriate for children in preschool and up.
3. Summary: This book is full of rhymes in which an old woman is running around, doing many chores to help out her dog. The old woman went to the baker, the undertaker, to get tripe, the fishmonger, the tavern, the fuiterer, the tailor, the hatter, the barber, the cobbler, the seamstress, and the hosier. However, each time the woman came back from a different place, the dog was doing something crazy, which then caused her to go back on an errand run and get something else for her dog.
4. Review: I usually am not a fan of nursery rhyme books, however, this book was very entertaining to read due to the fact that each sentence I read was directly followed by a sentence that rhymed with the previous one. Additionally, as I continued reading the book, I found myself becoming more and more eager to find out what crazy action the dog was going to be doing next after the old woman got back from each place. It was also a good book to introduce to children the different places that exist and specialize in selling very specific items one may need when running errands.
5. Uses in the classroom:
- This nursery rhyme can facilitate children’s understand of words that have the same ending sounds (words that rhyme).
- This nursery rhyme can start a discussion about what chores the children have to do in their own lives.
- This book can be a perfect transition into assigning classroom tasks and chores to each individual person, giving each one a responsibility they must carry out on their own in order to help the classroom run smoothly (similar to how the old woman in this book had to do many different chores for her dog).
Profile Image for Stephanie Tournas.
2,876 reviews41 followers
December 30, 2020
A reissue of dePaola’s 1981 version of the nursery rhyme. His wonderful illustrations, in warm hues that echo the warm brown woody framing of the stage, imagine a kind of variety show act, with the audience consisting of other nursery rhyme characters, such as Humpty Dumpty, Mother Goose and Little Bo Peep. Mother Hubbard clearly dotes on her dog, and takes it in stride that he has abilities beyond the usual pet, such as playing the flute and smoking a pipe. The dog’s silly antics, which at times are quite quaint, will delight young readers. With a couplet per page, readers have time to examine the framing which contains more nursery rhyme details. Adults will need to explain “fruiterer” and “hatter” and other terms long out of use, but the charm of the art and rhymes makes it worthwhile.
Profile Image for Anna.
1,959 reviews8 followers
July 20, 2012
The rhyme is faithfully reproduced here, but what really makes this edition stellar are the illustrations by Tomie de Paola.

On each page, there are small vignettes of other nursery rhyme characters which add to the simple lines of the Mother Hubbard rhyme.

Love TdP!

Shared with grandsons today and they liked it.
Profile Image for Lailatun Nadhirah.
Author 12 books30 followers
October 19, 2022
Okey buku klasik kanak-kanak yang sangat comel. Pengkisahan di antara seorang ibu tua bersama seekor anjing yang entah dari mana munculnya, tetapi akhirnya dia membela anjing itu dengan penuh kasih sayang.

Ibu Hubbard banyak keluar ke rumah dalam buku ini. Tiapkali dia balik rumah, anjingnya pasti melakukan sesuatu yang melucukan. Sumpah comel!
Profile Image for Tricia.
2,669 reviews
March 8, 2008
girls liked it. goes beyond the well known first verse and shows the dog doing other things such as playing the flute and reading the newspaper.
51 reviews1 follower
March 2, 2011
This book was cute, but the rhymes didn't always rhyme, and were a little over my 6 year old's head. The best part of the book is the illustrations by Tomie dePaola!
98 reviews
November 7, 2011
This is about a girl who had a dog and the dog kept wanting more and more things. I would use this in a classroom to show the students that wanting more is such a bad thing.
Profile Image for Lara.
39 reviews1 follower
May 30, 2012
It IS a childrens' book, and it rhymes, and it's long, so, it's not too bad, but I think that the lady bought too much things for the dog and that some things did not make sense.
Profile Image for Beverly.
6,310 reviews4 followers
October 3, 2017
Besides the main nursery rhyme, there are small panels on each spread with more, wordless classic nursery rhymes.
Profile Image for Raven Black.
3,148 reviews5 followers
March 24, 2020
The beloved story (full lyrics) done justice by Tomie himself! A must for fans of the artist.
Profile Image for Alp Gökalp.
Author 34 books10 followers
April 7, 2020
Tomie dePaola’nın çizimlerine bayılıyorum. Kendi hikayelerinin şefkatli ve çocuk muzipliğini yansıtan dili her okunuşta daha çekici. Bu anonim öyküye bir tık az sempati göstermiş gibi geldi bana.
Profile Image for Robin.
4,791 reviews7 followers
September 3, 2020
The same couplets my grandmother and I recited along with the Disney Mother Goose album.
Profile Image for Runell.
1,178 reviews70 followers
May 15, 2023
I read this to my toddler while at the library. He picked it out, but then had no interest in it once I started to read.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews