Tomie's Little Mother Goose

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Summary: Tomie's Little Mother Goose
Review: A happy mix of picture and rhyme. Babies especially love the repetitive rhythms. Very popular with 8 to 12 month old "readers".

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Summary: Beware of nursery rhymes with racial overtones
Review: I recommend any book written/illustrated by Tomie dePaola. His illustrations are always wonderful and you can be sure that it is a good quality children's book. I especially recommend reading nursery rhymes as early as possible to children. Hearing and learning nursery rhymes helps children develop cognitive and verbal skills.

Nursery rhymes have value in their historic nature, but we would find some to be outdated and even racial in nature. I was disappointed to find that some of these nursery rhymes with racial overtones are included in this book; I certainly won't read them to my child. For instance, "Baa, baa, black sheep" includes the word "master" and "See-saw, Margery Daw" goes "Jacky shall have a new master; Jacky shall have but a penny a day, Because he can't work any faster." Parents, please read all of the nursery rhymes yourself before reading to your children, and be sure to note which ones, if any, you find offensive so that sitters and others will not read them.