Dear Mother Goose

by Michael Rosen, Nick Sharratt (Illustrator)

Mother Goose has a good idea to stop Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall - and she helps lots of his friends too.Agony aunt Mother Goose helps Humpty Dumpty conquer his fear of falling and Little Miss Muffet deal with an over-friendly spider as well as helping a whole host of other much-loved characters in this charming lift-the-flap book. With its witty, joky letters, it's a nursery rhyme book with a twist from an award-winning author and illustrator team.

Genres: Picture Books

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Mother Goose, written by Michael Rosen, is about Mother Goose who acts as an ‘agony aunt’ for other nursery rhyme characters. The book includes different nursery rhymes and Mother Goose helps to solve their problems through a style of a letter. For example, Humpty Dumpty keeps falling of the wall, so Mother Goose recommends he gets an egg cup to sit on. The illustrations, by Nick Sharratt, in the book are fantastic and gives you a clear image of what is happening in the book. It also has flaps in the book which is a great way for child to interact with the story.
I very much enjoyed ready this. I was able to read this book with a child in reception and even though the child was unable to read all the words by herself, she knew most of the nursery rhymes of heart and could join in. She was able to talk about the illustrations and what she thought was happening in the story. As well as myself, she enjoyed the interactive flaps and was exciting to see what was underneath.
An appropriate age range for this book would be between 4-6 year olds. It is a fantastic book to read if you were learning about poems and rhyming. It engages children as it has different nursery rhymes which most children should know in the EYFS. I would also use this book for independent reading or even as a class book at the end of the day. It is a fantastic, interactive book which children would love to read.

[Matt Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Mother Goose acts as an agony aunt for a variety of characters from nursery rhymes. It's clever, it's funny and the illustrations are rich in detail (I especially love the way the level of the tea cup and the biscuit selection changes). It's also very scaleable to the level of the children, as the way it's laid out and the use of flaps makes it possible to leave out or include as much of the text as you want. It starts and ends with summaries of the situation in rhymed verse, and otherwise is laid out with the problem letter, Mother Goose's answer, the nursery rhyme (under a flap) and a picture illustrating the dilemma and solution (again using a flap). It's perfectly suited to getting children to predict what the answer will be, or come up with their own solutions and could possibly be used to teach letter writing.

[Sue Winson · Rating 5 out of 5]

2 year-old little-AJ loves nursery rhymes, so it is without surprise that he adores this book and asks for this to be read (and sing) whenever he sees it. The illustrations attracted little kids like little-AJ immediately. The pictures depict the texts perfectly. Young toddlers can grasp the meanings of the texts easily just by looking at the illustrations. The texts are simple, cute, and make good sense. This is a wonderful collection for parents and kids that love nursery rhymes.

The book features various popular nursery rhyme characters: Humpty Dumpty (that keeps falling off the wall), Jack (the one that fell from the hill and broke his crown, also the candlestick jumper), poor Miss Muffet (the one afraid of spider), the very unlucky maid that got her nose pecked off by black birds etc. Each character wrote letters to Mother Goose seeking advice to solve their little problem in life.

I find most "lift the flaps" books really distracting, but this book does it really well. There are little flaps containing lyrics of the song at one side and letters to Mother Goose at another. There are larger flaps showing illustrations of the "problem" faced by the character at one side, and the solution suggested by Mother Goose at another. I love the thoughts put in for the addresses of each of the characters, e.g old Mother Hubbard (the one that couldn't find a bone for her dog) stays at "13 Kennel Street, Houndthorpe", Mary Mary the avid gardener stays at "Pretty Maids' Cottage, Cockle Row, Gardentown". I find it really cute reading the addresses out loud.

The advices given are just as cute, some make perfectly good sense. E.g, if Humpty Dumpty kept falling down the wall, then he should try an egg cup instead. My Fair Lady (who suffered due to the falling London bridge) could have just catch a train under the river. And Jack the candlestick jumper really should put safety first: blow the candle out before jumping!

Little-AJ knows all the songs by heart. He clapped, joined in from time to time, and happily flipping the flaps and smiled at the cute illustrations. The last page brought all the characters together to show appreciation to Dear Mother Goose. It's lovely, positive, happy, and make the readers smile. After all, who doesn't like party with colourful balloons and yummy cake?

Blog review here: https://storypleasemummy.wordpress.co...

[Portable · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely fabulous. Another great book for reflecting on and extending familiar fairytales, together with The Last Book Before Bedtime, Each Peach Pear Plum, The Jolly Postman, or Other People's Letters and Goldilocks and Just One Bear. Various nursery rhyme characters write to Mother Goose for advice on how to solve their problems. Beautifully illustrated by Nick Sharratt, and with enticing lift the flaps,this book is great for talking about writing letters and solving problems. Read along with Dear Fairy Godmother.

[Helena Spiteri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dear Mother Goose by Michael Rosen is a delightful lift-the-flap book filled with an assortment of letters from well loved nursery rhyme characters all addressed to Mother Goose. Each of the letters contain a little problem from one of the characters in the hope that Mother Goose will come up with an idea to solve it. For example, My Fair Lady has trouble crossing London Bridge to get home because it keeps on falling down. So Mother Goose writes back suggesting she takes the train underneath the bridge. When children have read the letters on each page they can lift the flap to read the nursery rhyme on the other side.

It would be an ideal choice of text to introduce a topic on letter writing in Year 1.