Have a Gander at this! (Nursery Rhymes)

Member Name: noodlesandwich

Product:	Nursery Rhymes
Date:	02/06/09 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bright and cheerful rhymes for children

Disadvantages: No CD listing

All children love Nursery Rhymes and I think a decent collection is an essential addition to any child's bookshelf. This selection of rhymes was given to my daughter by her grandparents recently and comes in a big eyecatching board book with a sing-along CD.

It's a wonderfully colourful book and really stands out on my daughters bookshelf. The cover is bright red with multi coloured rainbow lettering done in a 'stitch-on' style. The pages have a bumpy textured feel to them. The pictures are big, bold, bright and cheerful and the lettering is clear and easily readable in either black or white. The front cover has the CD attached to it in a clear plastic holder on the inside which pops open to take in and out. On my daughter's copy the cover is now a hole with the first page visible through it, as she liked the plastic circle so much she used it as a window and a puddle for other toys to splash in and broke it. With hindsight it would have been best to gently remove this cover from the book straight away. In any case I don't think the book is the best place to keep it, as we look at the book much more than we listen to the CD, so I had already removed the disc and put it in a case with other CDs. Apart from this it is a very sturdy book.

There are twenty two nursery rhymes in total, (I have listed them at the end of the review), so not a comprehensive collection, but a good start for a very young child.

All of the songs are on the CD in the same order. I found it worth my while to write out a CD listing to make it easier to put on a particular song that my daughter asked for, otherwise the only list is on the disc itself which means popping it out, or going through the book pages as there is no contents page, or else flicking through on the CD's jog button. I can tell you off the top of my head that Hickory Dickory Dock is number 4 and Yankee Doodle is 14!

The tracks on the CD are arranged and recorded by Andrew Dodge and sung by Stefanie Moore who has a very proper english sounding voice, giving quite an old fashioned sound. The songs are short and sweet with some nice sound effects and generally sung to traditional arrangements although a couple of tunes have been written for this disc. My daughter already had a disc of songs and nursery rhymes but she seems to prefer this one over it, although unfortunately the version of her favourite - Hickory Dickory Dock, is better on the other one where it has an abundance of squeaks. Just when little person looks like she is getting bored of it, a musical trick or sound effect will catch her attention and make her grin, she asks for several of them again after they have finished, but it can also be the source of some whinging behaviour, particularly if her mother attempts to do any dancing. The running time is 16mins 39secs.

Thinking about the nursery rhymes themselves, there are a few lines here and there that have given me pause for thought. The old woman who lived in a shoe for example who 'whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed'. I used to change it to 'she read them a story and put them to bed', (political correctness gone mad! I hear some of you shout). Unfortunately I can't get away with that now that my daughter hears it on the CD, but I suppose I may as well start preparing her for the harsh realities of life. As for Goosey Goosey Gander, it's quite a sinister little rhyme really isn't it? I always wondered why the old man got thrown down the stairs and apparently it's because he was a priest! A little research tells me that it's thought to be an anti-catholic rhyme, the prayers being protestant ones. Such lovely traditions we pass on to our children in these rhymes. Seriously though, although some of the rhymes may have a bit of dodgy background story, they are great fun for children who learn a lot about life and language from them. The rhymes, alliteration, rhythm and repetition appeal to children and help them begin to recognize and identify sounds which is an important part of literacy. My daughter has a much, much bigger book of nursery rhymes which she really likes, yet not all of the rhymes here are in that one. This is a very appealing book for young children and my daughter is certainly very fond it.

List of rhymes: Hey Diddle Diddle; Twinkle Twinkle Little Star; Mary Mary, Quite Contrary; Hickory Dickory Dock; Little Jack Horner; The Queen of Hearts; Little Bo Peep; Little Miss Muffet; This Little Piggy; Rock-a-bye Baby; Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush; Old Mother Hubbard; Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake; Yankee Doodle; Jack and Jill; Humpty Dumpty; Sing a Song of Sixpence; Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat; Baa Baa Black Sheep; Three Little Kittens; There Was an old Woman; Goosey Goosey Gander.

Currently priced at £8.49 on Amazon
Size : 23.8 x 23.4 x 2.8 cm
By Louise Shrigley, Roger Priddy, Priddy Books
Illustrated by Louise Shrigley
Published by Macmillan, 2006
ISBN 031249808X, 9780312498085
28 pages

Summary: An appealing book of Nursery Rhymes with CD