Bright, colorful pictures. Well-known and lesser known rhymes. Accompanying CD available which makes a nice addition. Ages 3-6. ( )

Engelbreit,Mary. Mother Goose. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. This is a beautifully illustrated book with cute pictures that anyone would love to look at over and over again. It contains traditional mother goose rhymes and it focuses on 100 of the best-loved verses. This is an engaging book to use with a child on your lap. This can introduce them to rhyme and the phonemic patterns in words. Age group: 3-6 years ( )

Mary Engelbreit, Mother Goose, (2005) Harper Collins

Mary Engelbreit is best known for her illustrations that burst in color and round, cute figured characters. However, as wonderful as her drawings were, I found them too busy for a book intended for preschoolers and kindergarteners. Yes, the book has been reviewed for its decorative, collector-quality work, but I wouldn't include it in my children's collection. Compared with Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose with illustrations that closely follow the plot and setting of the rhymes, Mary Engelbreit's drawings were more decorative and less functional. In addition, most of the rhymes only included the first verse - how difficult would it have been to include the second and third verses of the rhymes? ( )

ELIB 530A – LibraryThing Part B – Beginning Book / Mother Goose Book 1
This Mother Goose book is definitely one that I would add to a children’s library and a home one as well. Its verses include old familiar favorites as well as some that are less well known. Mary Englebreit creates a safe, clean, colorful and whimsical world for her cherubic characters. They wear clothing from past eras and walk in an old world environment that is playful and imaginative. Most of the pages are filled with enough detail to hold a young child’s interest long enough to read the complete verse. Many adults enjoy her other works and this book would be no exception. Most of us still enjoy a visit to that place that is beautiful and simple: childhood. Mary Englebreit’s illustrations can take a person there for a while.

Annotation:
Mary Engelbreit has captured with wonderful illustrations traditional Mother Goose rhymes. Most are recognizable and others are not as familiar. Her illustrations capture the imagination of those who remember the rhymes from childhood and those that are new to Mother Goose.

My Review:
Mary Engelbreit has illustrated Mother Goose rhymes with wonderfully drawn and colorful images that compliment the featured rhymes in this collection (100). The pages are filled with her images that are of a size that can be studied to appreciate her attention to detail. I appreciate that she chose to layout the pages with each page containing only one or two rhymes therefore easy to read and follow. This is a wonderful book that will bring back memories for adults or create memories for children to enjoy year after year

Other Reviews

School Library Journal: Preschool through Grade 1 – This review emphasizes the clean and uncluttered layout of the pages. It mentions that the book includes family Mother Goose rhymes as well as other less familiar. The review also mentions “Engelbreit has outfitted her characters, both fantastic and human, in a variety of period clothes, from medieval to more contemporary,” and that most have an English look to them. Its values the publication stating “This volume is likely to prove popular with children and Engelbreit’s adult following. A solid collection that would be useful in any library”. I would have chosen this publication of Mother Goose rhymes because of the reviewer’s description of the illustrations which are so important to my evaluation of a good children’s book.

The only other review was for the audio version of this publication as written by Publishers Weekly Review: /* Starred Review */ -British actress, Lynn Redgrave, reads the 100 nursery rhymes which the reviewer highly praises, “The British actress is an inspired choice here, providing crisp pronunciation and lilting rhythm throughout. Cheery and playful without being silly, her performance catches all the fun-to-say and fun-to-hear elements of the verse.” The review suggests that the book could be used to follow along with the reading. Good suggestion from the reviewer. I definitely would search for this CD. ( )