Review: MOO, MOO, BROWN COW, HAVE YOU ANY MILK? by Phillis Gershator

Gershator, Phillis. Moo, Moo, Brown Cow, Have You Any Milk? Illus. Giselle Potter. New York: Random House, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-375-86744-6. $16.99.

Phillis Gershator’s wonderful retelling of “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” nursery rhyme expands this classic into an adorable bedtime tale. The soft, colorful illustrations depict a little boy on a farm asking each of his barnyard friends about the benefits of their gifts. The black sheep, the gray goose, the red hen, the yellow bee, and the brow cow all give the rhyming “yes sir, yes sir…” response to the child’s questions before we follow each of them to their beds, and get a peek into their dreams. Fun surprises like the sheep knitting a blanket and the hen wearing an apron will bring joy to you and your little reader as you revisit this beloved nursery rhyme again and again.

Emily Moore

Review: HUMPTY DUMPTY AND FRIENDS by Oleg Lipchenko

Lipchenko, Oleg. Humpty Dumpty and Friends. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2010. ISBN 1-77049-205-9. $17.95.

This version of Mother Goose is superb. Lipchenko’s remarkably fine illustrations accompany Tundra Books’ unusual selection of nursery rhymes. With full color, full page pastel wonders of detailed perspective on the right page and two smaller, soft black and white pictures, page decorations, and two poems on the left, Lipchenko’s ingenuity is everywhere evident. A color page such as the one illustrating “Robbin the Bobbin,The big-bellied Ben…” are full of angles and sub-scenes and surprises, enough on each page to last a long time. In addition, this collection features rhymes not in the typical canon. For example:

The captain was a duck
With a packet on his back;
When the ship began to move,
The captain said, “Quack, quack!”

The illustration of this poem is hilarious, as are they all.

Alida Allison