Mother Goose to the Rescue!

by Nate Evans, Stephanie Gwyn Brown, Jessica Gibson (Illustrator)

Join Mother Goose and her band of nursery rhyme characters as they jump to the rescue in this rhyming picture book celebrating the heroism of firefighters!

DING-DONG! Alarm bells chime
in Mother Goose's House of Rhyme!

Welcome to Mother Goose's House of Rhyme, where a team of firefighting nursery rhyme characters are ready to leap into the action! When the Queen of Hearts's bakery goes up in flame, Chief Mother Goose, The Five Little Piggies, Mary and her little lamb, and the rest of the team are on the case.

With fun, rhyming text, and featuring classic nursery rhyme characters, Mother Goose to the Rescue is the perfect way to celebrate firefighters everywhere.

Genres: Picture Books, Firefighters, Nursery Rhymes, Childrens, Juvenile

32 pages, Hardcover

Published February 2, 2021

About the author

Nate Evans wanted to be a secret agent, a firefighter, or a magician when he was a kid. But he also loved to read and write, and he grew up to be the author of more than thirty-five children’s books, including the New York Times bestsellers Ponyella and The Jellybeans and the Big Dance, both cowritten with Laura Numeroff, and the series Humpty Dumpty Jr.: Hardboiled Detective, an IndieBound “Inspired Recommendation for Kids.” He also illustrated Laura Numeroff”s 10-Step Guide to Living with Your Monster, among others. You can visit him online at www.nateevans.com.

Reviews

[Mid-Continent Public Library]

o all those who grew up learning the Mother Goose nursery rhymes, the book, Mother Goose to the Rescue, by Nate Evans and Stephanie Gwyn Brown and illustrated by Jessica Gibson, will definitely tickle your funny bone. The Queen of Hearts is in danger of burning down the castle as she bakes her tarts so Mother Goose must gather all her nursery rhyme friends and fire fighters to help put out the fire. Jack and Jill use his pails to gather water to fight the fire (without falling down the hill) while Mary Quite Contrary fights to save the castle garden grounds and Little Miss Muffet and the Itsy-Bitsy Spider use ladder trucks and hoses to fight the flames. All would be lost, however, if it was not for Mother Goose who spies a key tart ingredient and uses it to put out the last of the fire – it may be a sticky mess in the end, but the castle is saved! * Review by Melinda from Edgerton *

[Kathryn (Dragon Bite Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review first published on my site, Dragon Bite Books .

Mother Goose to the Rescue!—as it should, given the text from which it takes inspiration—rhymes as well—and does so I think more effortlessly than Fire Chief Fran, another book about firefighters that we read that day. The cast of Mother Goose to the Rescue! are mostly human, the characters familiar from Mother Goose nursery rhymes: Little Boy Blue; Jack and Jill; Jack Be Nimble; Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary; Little Miss Muffett; Mary, who had a little lamb; Old King Cole; and the King and Queen of Hearts. These human characters are depicted having a range of skin tones. Mother Goose; the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mary’s lamb; Goosey Gander, and the five piggies (who went to market, etc) round out the cast. The book opens with a page spread of the characters and my story time audience and I tried to identify the characters from their portraits before jumping into the story. We enjoyed discovering whether or not our guesses were correct. We enjoyed finding the characters in the illustrations and the attention to detail in the illustrations by Jessica Gibson. I especially enjoyed the tiny fire truck that Itsy-Bitsy uses. In this, the firefighters race to the castle bakery to put out a fire. Resourceful firefighters, having used up the available water, turn to jam as a solution to the sticky situation. And of course, the firefighters are ultimately successful in putting out the fire and saving the castle from serious harm and are thanked by the king and queen. In the end, they race off to another emergency.

[Jane Healy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rhyming picture book mashes up many favorite nursery rhymes, as familiar characters become firefighting heroes to put out the fire in the Queen of Hearts' castle. The illustrations are action-packed. This book would pair well with a traditional nursery rhyme book, so kids could hear the original if they did not already know it. Kids who know their nursery rhymes will enjoy finding the characters in new roles. Will there be other books like this, showing characters in other professions?

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mash up of recognizable nursery characters, as Mother Goose leads her brigade of fire fighters to help extinguish a fire caused by buttered dough while the Queen of Heart was baking tarts. As Mother Goose belts out orders in rhyme the fire fighters show what they are made of; courage and wit and tons of grit to save the burning castle.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

This mash-up of nursery rhyme characters relies on the audience's knowledge of the characters and does nothing new or creative with them. It's a chaotic, random rush to put out a fire, with way too many characters and not enough real story.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nursery rhyme characters are firefighters in this rhyming story. Sure to delight the pre-K fireman crowd.

[Thomas Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lame. Just tried hard to, unsuccessfully, throw a whole bunch of nursery characters into a book about putting out a fire.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute!

[Sarah Threlkeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun mash up of nursery rhyme characters and firefighting.

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny if you know mother goose rhymes. The jokes would go over your head if you didn’t know the rhymes. Thus, I liked it a lot more then my kids.

[Tale9Fin2Bryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the rhymes and seeing characters from all the Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes!

[Pinky]

Mother Goose and her crew save the Queen of Hearts bakery from burning down.

[Beth Bauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kids loved this one. You have to have a pretty good grasp on the original fairy tales and nursery rhymes to find it funny though, or for the illustrations to make sense.

[Steph]

Turn/Level: 1/3

Mother Goose, Emergency Services

The mother goose team man the emergency response for their world.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mother Goose characters to the rescue!