Tail Feathers from Mother Goose: The Opie Rhyme Book

by P. Opie, Iona Opie, Peter Opie, Iona, Opie

Book Overview

An illustrated collection of traditional verses, most of which have never been published before. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0744510392
• ISBN13: 9780744510393
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Little Brown
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Delightful in every respect

The rhymes in this book, selected by Iona Opie from the collection, are a joy to read, remember and then use. This way of keeping them alive, used, adapted and passed on is superb for the English speaking heritage. Time has prooved them useful and amusing. Added to this purpose we have a tremendous selection of matching illustrations, donated by the cream of Children's Illustrators at the time of publication. This is a very good purchase and a delight to own. It would be nice to pass on to children when they start their families.

A great book (for the unconventional)

This is the Mother Goose that a folklorist loves ... more specifically that the folklorist Iona Opie loved enough to select from the Opie Collection of Children's Literature, a collection of folklore and literature housed at Oxford University. Most of these rhymes will be unfamiliar as many of them have not previously been published or are less familiar varients of published rhymes.The illustrations are delightful; they represent a wide range of illustrators working today. Some of the rhymes include dialect which is unobtrusibly "translated". Here and there are notes explaining something about the source of the rhyme.Examples: "Mrs. Burns' Lullaby" was crooned by Robert Burn's wife Jean to their children. "An Indian Giant's Fishing Tackle" was published in 1653; it is based on a Native American's tradition of a giant living on Martha's Vinyard. But the rhymes are not "exotic" they sound like traditional Mother Goose: "Ginger, Ginger, broke the winder, / Hit the winder - Crack! / The baker came out to give 'im a clout / And landed on 'is back".Absolutely wonderful book. [Opie's more traditional First Mother Goose is also wonderful.]

Great read-aloud book for children (and parents)

Our family happened upon this book strictly by accident, but it has since become an absolute favorite in our home. The illustrations are by a collection of many of the best contemporary children's illustrators, and the poems are wonderfully fresh and original, ranging from irreverently playful to magically contemplative in tone. The poems were picked by Iona Opie from the Opie Collection--a collection of Children's literature and folklore at Oxford University. Great for reading aloud to children of any age.