 | Knick Knack Paddy Whack! by Steve Songs A lively version of This Old Man, in which the old man helps the neighborhood kids form a band. |
 | Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker My favorite version of 1,2, Buckle My Shoe, complete with many chicks! |
 | And The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Janet Stevens What becomes of the dish and the spoon after they run away? This book tells all. |
 | The Bear Went Over the Mountain by Rosemary Wells This classic children's song becomes a story about a bear who ventures out away from his mother, and then returns home. |
 | The Completed Hickory Dickory Dock by Jim Ayelsworth The mouse runs up the clock, but that's just the beginning! |
 | The Neighborhood Mother Goose by Nina Crews Traditional and not-so-traditional Mother Goose Rhymes are recast for an urban environment. |
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+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteKatie, do you know the Eugene Field poem The Duel, which begins, "The gingham dog and the calico cat/ Side by side on the table sat . . ."? I've always thought of it as an extended nursery rhyme, because it has the similar sort of simple "stock characters" that you find in a nursery rhyme but also manages to tell more of a story.
There's something nice and complete about nursery rhymes: I suppose the mix of nonsense, meter and rhyme--plus nostalgia for the age when we're usually introduced to them--keeps us from writing them off as fluff about nothing. But I agree that each one could be the seed of a greater story. Hickory Dickory Dock, for one, sounds as if it inspired a pretty good plot!
And now another question: did you ever watch Shelley Duvall's Mother Goose Rock N Rhyme? I was fascinated by all the characters from nursery rhymes coming alive, having a bit of a twist to them, and still being true to the verses we remember. (My favourites were a grown-up Mary and her equally grown-up Lamb, who still followed her everywhere and was the reason she couldn't keep a boyfriend. LOL!)