Over the Hills and far away edited by Elizabeth Hammill

 Celebrating Mother Goose Day - 1st May

If you own only one nursery rhyme collection on your shelves, own this one. Elizabeth Bird School Library Journal

The full title of this book is

Over the Hills and far away: : A treasury of nursery rhymes from around the world, illustrated by 77 celebrated artists.

I borrowed this book from a school library because they were setting up a display for Mother Goose Day which is celebrated on 1st May. The book Over the Hills and far away was produced in 2014 and it is now out of print (although I did find a copy of the newer edition from an online bookseller for over AUS$60.). 

Over the Hills and far away is a book to treasure. It is a book you could have given as a truly special gift to celebrate the arrival of a new baby. Like the best poetry anthologies, this is a book to revisit often. 

Some of the famous illustrators you will find inside are

Australia - Bob Graham; Ann James; Shaun Tan; Pamela Allen; Gus Gordon; Robert Ingpen; and Bruce Whatley

Other famous names: Michael Foreman; Ed Young; Yasmeen Ismail; Niki Daly; Rebecca Cobb; Clara Vulliamy; Emma Chickester Clark; Emily Gravett; Mini Grey; Marcia Williams; Nick Sharratt; Catherine Rayner; Mo Willems; Sarah Garland; Pamela Zagarenski; Shirley Hughes; Satoshi Kitamura; Eric Carle; Jerry Pinkney; Lucy Cousins; Pat Hutchins; Charlotte Voake; Jon Klassen; Alan Lee; James Mayhew; Polly Dunbar; Jane Ray; Axel Schffler and Chris Raschka.

I have a small Pinterest collection of Humpty Dumpty books. Here are some terrific fractured versions of nursery rhymes you could use with an older group of students and my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything also has a terrific collection of Fractured Nursery rhymes.

The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster

The Cow tripped over the Moon

There are more in the Urgency Emergency series to explore

There are more books in the Seriously Silly rhymes series you can explore

Here are a few of my other favourite Nursery Rhyme anthologies which would be perfect gifts for a young child and their family. These are just a sample - there are sure to be lots of other wonderful collections available in public and school libraries and in book stores. Sadly some of these are out of print but you might be luck, as I was, and find one or two in a charity book shop or book sale. 

You can read more about Mother Goose Day on the Kinderbookswitheverything blog where you also find some activities to use with a group of children or even in your own family.

But, the best thing to do is to read aloud from an extensive collection of rhymes and find some that are new to you and the children. from Kinderbookswitheverything

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