What do you think?
Rate this book
You Can't Make This Stuff Up! The Twisted Origins of Nursery Rhymes: Revised and Expanded Editiion
You thought nursery rhymes were harmless? Think again.
Behind the cheerful rhymes we all recited as kids lurk stories of plague, rebellion, murder, mutilation, political sabotage, and the occasional emotionally unstable shepherdess.
The Twisted Origins of Nursery Rhymes takes you on a darkly entertaining dive into 40+ classic rhymes, including Little Bo-Peep, Jack and Jill, Baa Baa Black Sheep, The Crooked Man, and Rock-A-Bye-Baby. Each entry uncovers the weird history, political jabs, or barely disguised horror story behind the verses we were taught to sing with a smile.
If you've ever wondered what your favorite childhood rhymes were really about, this book delivers the uncomfortable answers—with a side of historical sass.
✔️ Dark origins revealed
✔️ Packed with fun facts, folklore, and historical context
✔️ Written with wit, sarcasm, and a healthy disrespect for sugarcoating
Perfect for fans of twisted history, folklore fanatics, or anyone who prefers their bedtime stories with a body count.
Behind the cheerful rhymes we all recited as kids lurk stories of plague, rebellion, murder, mutilation, political sabotage, and the occasional emotionally unstable shepherdess.
The Twisted Origins of Nursery Rhymes takes you on a darkly entertaining dive into 40+ classic rhymes, including Little Bo-Peep, Jack and Jill, Baa Baa Black Sheep, The Crooked Man, and Rock-A-Bye-Baby. Each entry uncovers the weird history, political jabs, or barely disguised horror story behind the verses we were taught to sing with a smile.
If you've ever wondered what your favorite childhood rhymes were really about, this book delivers the uncomfortable answers—with a side of historical sass.
✔️ Dark origins revealed
✔️ Packed with fun facts, folklore, and historical context
✔️ Written with wit, sarcasm, and a healthy disrespect for sugarcoating
Perfect for fans of twisted history, folklore fanatics, or anyone who prefers their bedtime stories with a body count.
132 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 21, 2025
6 people are currently reading
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 11, 2025
This Book Needs to Read Its Own Title
The Twisted Origins of Nursery Rhymes is supposed to take a glimpse into the origins of Euro-centric nursery rhymes.
The book's Introduction does a brief explanation of what is a nursery rhyme and the possible reason for its existence. The author also takes a moment to provide to the reader all of the requirements a rhyme must have met to be included.
The rest of the book is broken down into chapters, which are individually focused. As a result, readers will find an included copy of the rhyme at the start of each. The rest of the chapter is broken down into subsections that explore when & where it showed up, what it is about and why it was written as well as a look into additional verses & variations. And finally the chapter ends on various trivia.
The Where & When basically could have been copied and pasted for each entry with updates to the year and title(s). And the What It Was About gives a quick explanation based on what the reader can see before exploring all the theories that have been put forth with only one ever having an origin, which wasn't dark either.
Unlike one of her works, the author keeps down the pop trivia to a few rare extras although she does try to add versions of the rhyme before stating it isn't so.
Since there wasn't much to truly explore, and most of this has been rehashed before, it basically didn't provide me as a reader anything new to learn.
The Twisted Origins of Nursery Rhymes is supposed to take a glimpse into the origins of Euro-centric nursery rhymes.
The book's Introduction does a brief explanation of what is a nursery rhyme and the possible reason for its existence. The author also takes a moment to provide to the reader all of the requirements a rhyme must have met to be included.
The rest of the book is broken down into chapters, which are individually focused. As a result, readers will find an included copy of the rhyme at the start of each. The rest of the chapter is broken down into subsections that explore when & where it showed up, what it is about and why it was written as well as a look into additional verses & variations. And finally the chapter ends on various trivia.
The Where & When basically could have been copied and pasted for each entry with updates to the year and title(s). And the What It Was About gives a quick explanation based on what the reader can see before exploring all the theories that have been put forth with only one ever having an origin, which wasn't dark either.
Unlike one of her works, the author keeps down the pop trivia to a few rare extras although she does try to add versions of the rhyme before stating it isn't so.
Since there wasn't much to truly explore, and most of this has been rehashed before, it basically didn't provide me as a reader anything new to learn.
Displaying 1 of 1 review