Dan Yaccarino's Mother Goose

City Living, Mother Goose Style

Citation:

Dan Yaccarino’s Mother Goose by Dan Yaccarino.  (Random House, 2004).  41p. Mother Goose Picture Book.

Summary:

Traditional Mother Goose rhymes presented with updated illustrations

Critique:

a.         Familiar Mother Goose rhymes are given a new life with vibrant and entertaining illustrations.

b.         The updated illustrations entrance today’s youngsters in yesterday’s rhymes.  The pictures use bright colors and cityscape backdrops to portray the familiar prose.

c.         Hey Diddle Diddle includes a jazz cat playing the fiddle as the police officer chases the dish that ran away with the spoon, Mary’s garden is growing behind a brick wall, and Mother Goose is riding her gander above cabs and busses helps illuminate the city life of the tattered rhymes.

Curriculum Connection:  

Dan Yaccarino’s Mother Goose embodies what is old can be new again.  This book should be placed side by side with a traditional Mother Goose book to explore how similar rhymes can be interpreted differently.  A great addition to any early childhood classroom, Dan Yaccarino’s Mother Goose, could be used as story extension and nursery rhyme recall.