The Space Child's Mother Goose

Rating:
Summary: mother goose for the space age
Review: Okay I admit it I am biased. Frederick Winsor was my grandfather. I never knew him alas, but his infectious rhymes were part of my childhood. My 8-year-old son loves them too. Especially his version of hickory dickory dock. "Flappity, floppity, flip, the mouse on the Moebius strip, the strip revolved, the mouse disolved, in a chrono-dimensional skip." There is a glossary at the end that (sort of) explains the scientific terms.

Rating:
Summary: My sister gave it to me many years ago
Review: Probable-Possible, my black hen

She lays eggs in the relative when

She doesn't lay eggs in the positive now

Because she's unable to postulate how.

Several pages later:

Plusque-Posible ma poule noire

Elle ? ses oeufs dans le quand-provisoir

I could also try to remember the German by memory. But already I must admit to pretty poor french. The above English is pretty close to the original, I'm sure.

I think this the funniest trick in this very funny book. Schwarz-henn shows up also in great hieroglyphics, and in Greek with an off-base pedantic translation back into English.

It is a great disappointment that she is out of print. My copy was given me by my sister, the only person who could always pick for me what I wanted, when I was a Naval Officer living in pre Viet Nam Japan. I have just tried to purchase it for a 5 year old piano student who plays the works Mozart wrote at age 5 and who can solve linear equations for two unknowns.

Give it, if you can get it, to any progressive adult or child and you and he will be blessed!

Rating:
Summary: Twisted, Charming, Educational, and Just Plain Fun
Review: Rubber-band mathematics, telekenisis, Moebius strips and Klein bottles, multi-dimensional space-folds, a model of a scientific theory, postulates and relative time frames would not seem to be material suitable for children, but this slim book will quickly disabuse you of that idea. This book is a marvelous re-working of the old Mother Goose rhymes, updated to today's scientifically oriented world.

I first read this book just after it was published, when I was about eleven years old, and was immediately captivated. It made no difference that I didn't understand some of the terms being used. The thing that caught me was the skill with which these modern-day and science-fictional items were folded into those well known rhymes, how well they fit and gave new, quite twisted, and in many cases hysterically funny meaning to them. Reading them today, these verses are still just as funny, if not more so than I found them to be in my youth, as I now can catch the fact that Winsor buried many sly references to Greek literature, outmoded scientific theories, and even satire about academic politics within their brief lines. My favorite along this latter line is 'The Theory that Jack Built', which contains a fatal flaw, hidden by mummery, obfuscation, and bells and whistles, which all gets blown away when the Space Child presses the 'Go' button.

The illustrations are just as marvelous, and do much to help someone who might not completely understand the scientific terms to see just what is being referenced, while being very individualistic in style and maintaining the humorous tone of the whole book. Along with these visual aids, there are often 'definitions' at the bottom of the page, some even more abstruse than the item being defined, but just as funny.

Don't forget to read the 'Answers' at the back of the book, which in addition to some appropriate real definitions, also provide some rather unique explanations of some of the terms used in this book, including one which takes a viscous dig at Congress.

Give this one to your son or daughter, but not till you've read it yourself. You might get a few questions, and there might be a few puzzled frowns, but I'd almost guarantee you'll also be the recipient of some laughs and smiles.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book was a big part of my childhood.

Rating:
Summary: Out-of-print gem of charming poems of the space age.
Review: Written in 1958, at the dawn of the Space Age, this charming collection of updated Mother Goose rhymes by Frederick Winsor is supplemented with the delightful pen-and-ink illustrations of Marian Parry. Originally published in _The_Atlantic_, these updated poems are not satirical or mocking of either the original verses, or of the new ideas they incorporate. While some might think they are too intellectually advanced for children, and are intended for high-school age and up, they made perfect sense to this reviewer at age 6. Fanciful verse definitions accompany poems with lesser-known terms, and an extensive glossary is provided at the end. While this book is now out-of-print, editons are still possible to find. Perhaps if enough of a new generation discovers its pleasures, we will see it back on the shelves by popular demand.