Nursery Rhymes

 

Sydney Morning Herald 14th January, 2023

Think about this image - do you immediately recognise the Nursery Rhyme?

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.

She gave them some broth without any bread;

And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

Does this cartoon have more impact if you are familiar with the old woman in her shoe? 

Dr Robin Morrow and I recently prepared a short video for IBBY Australia members about Nursery Rhymes. 

A couple of things inspired me to suggest this topic for our IBBY Members. First of all Nursery Rhymes, which have survived for centuries, are now at risk of being lost in busy lives dominated by screen culture. Far too often I see parents on devices - ignoring their young children. I always gift a nursery rhyme book when a new baby arrives but I wonder - do the parents read any of the rhymes to their child? And what about the less well known rhymes - are they all now lost? 

I just discovered this new book which will be available in August - it is sure to contain lots of familiar and unfamiliar rhymes. Read more here. 

So I wanted to pose the question: What can we do to counteract the possible trend that children are not hearing Nursery Rhymes?

Secondly, I purchased a beautiful Nursery Rhyme collection illustrated by Jackie Morris but to my eye this is not a book for a young child - it is a book to share with an older child or one to enjoy on your own shelves so I went hunting for other Nursery Rhyme anthologies - many by very famous and special illustrators and many designed for very young children.

Our presentation had three purposes:

• To show why nursery rhymes are important for all ages
• To showcase exemplary anthologies of nursery rhymes by the best illustrators
• To share examples of references to nursery rhymes in contemporary culture

Nursery Rhymes:

• Introduce rich vocabulary
• Children hear the rhythm of English
• Include alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme and imagery
• Easy to learn and repeat
• Contain patterns
• Story structure of beginning, middle and end

Here are a few of the special books we shared.  I do hope some of these are either in your local or school library or even in print and available for you to gift to a young child or even better available for you to consider it as an addition to your school library.

Brian Wildsmith 1964

Tomie dePaola 1985

Raymond Briggs 1966

Rosemary Wells 1996

Mies van Hout 2014

Read more about this one here

We also discovered this amazing parody.

I will talk a little more about this book in the coming weeks.

I was interested to discover the CBCA selected a Nursery Rhyme book as a Notable title in about 2009.

Can you keep a secret?

Now think about books like The Jolly Postman by Allan Ahlberg and his other famous book Each Peach Pear Plum.  How much richer is the reading experience when a child recognises the Nursery Rhyme references in these texts.

Think about the opening lines: Each Peach Pear Plum I spy Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb in the cupboard I spy Mother Hubbard.

What about these?

Today I discovered there is a World Nursery Rhyme week - 13th to 17th November, 2023.

I hope I have inspired you to seek out nursery rhymes and to share them with the young and not so young readers in your life.