The Helen Oxenbury Nursery Rhyme Book

by Brian Alderson, Helen Oxenbury (Illustrator)

The Helen Oxenbury Nursery Story Book

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books

72 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1989

About the author

Brian Alderson is the chief children's book reviewer for the London Times and a lecturer and writer on the history of children's literature.

Reviews

[Amalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awards: n/a

Appropriate grade level(s): Preschool-3rd

Summary: This is a book that is filled with classic children's nursery rhymes. It contains many colorful illustrations that correspond with the nursery rhyme. Every rhyme is vastly different than the other so children have a wide range of rhymes to read.

Review: This book, to me, is very unorganized and random. It contains multiple nursery rhymes, yet there is no table of context to find specific rhymes. The title of the nursery rhymes are also not found in the book so it can be very tricky for children to know when they are starting one rhyme, then moving onto the next.

Possible in-class uses:
1)Lesson on rhyming words
2)Lessons on phonics and the sounds that letters make
3)Lesson on word recognition

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Checked out from Kilbourn Public Library 📚 in Wisconsin (unique, different…3.5 stars)

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title by Oxenbury published in 1974 just five years after Oxenbury published her first children’s picture book. Previously to illustrating picture books, Oxenbury worked in the theatre, film, and television designing sets and costumes. I think you can see the previous work influencing these illusions as they are very detailed and several are rather detailed paintings. Very different from what her later picture book look like.
A number of the nursery rhymes are very unfamiliar, however to the children of the 21st century. However, the rhymes were chosen by Brian Alderson
from the book, Cakes and Custard which was an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book of 1975.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found myself disliking the majority of the rhymes in this book. The illustrations were only so-so.