Monday, November 1, 2010

Space Child's Mother Goose

It amazes me sometimes what comes up in my consciousness that I didn't know about. What can it mean that I never heard of this book before today? It is a collection of Mother Goose rhymes written in the 1950s by Frederick Winsor and illustrated by Marian Parry. It was out of print for a long time but has been republished by Purple House Press. It's available in paperback and hardback here.

Here is what happened today. I was at the Food Co-op after my workout, wondering whether to get a bowl of soup or a half-sandwich for lunch. In a conversation with the young checkout man, he mentioned that a regular customer complains almost daily about the soups being too spicy. I told him they are perfect for me, and said off-handedly, "Well, you know the poem about Jack Sprat." I walked off to enjoy my sandwich.

A few minutes later, Chris (the young man) came over to my table and asked if I knew the rest of the poem. I told him what I remembered: "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean. And so, betwixt the two of them, they licked the platter clean." He smiled and said that his remembrances of childhood nursery rhymes was skewed by having grown up with the Space Child's Mother Goose, and he knew many of the poems by heart. He gave me a piece of paper with one of them printed on it (in his handwriting):

I was immediately in love with the poem, which says, if you can't read it:
Probable Possible, my black hen
She lays eggs in the relative when
She never lays eggs in the positive now
She couldn't manage to postulate how

So of course as soon as I got home (thinking I have to find out more about this children's book), I googled it and found that it was around at the time when I was a young girl. Where was I that I never learned about it until today? Oh, right: I was a girl and was not expected to know anything about scientific matters as a youngster. Instead, I was given cookbooks and primed to be a wife and mother, not a scientist! What was I thinking?

Oh, how much has changed these days. And not all of it is negative. If you have heard of this book, or better yet, given it to one of your daughters to read, I'd love to hear about it.
:-)

21 comments:

  1. nice. have not heard about this one...will have to check it out...funny that he remembers them as easy as i remember mother goose...

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  2. I had my one child, a daughter in 1956 - and although we went to the library all the time, I never heard of this book. I did recite the old fashioned Mother Goose rhymes all the time. Thanks for informing us about this interesting book.

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  3. It's news to me too but it sounds like fun.

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  4. I read to my daughters daily but we never ran across this one.

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  5. I had bought a Mother’s Goose for my daughters, but never saw this one.

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  6. I've never come across it, either!

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  7. The books I remember best are the poems in the our Childcraft books. Some of them were pretty wild, too. Since Peter now owns the books, I sometimes read him to when I visit and it brings back all kinds of memories. One I remember:

    Hi Kokolorum

    Hi Kokolorum Darling dillicky dollicky Dinah, niece she was to the Empress of China, fair she was as a morning in May, when Hikokolorum stole her away.

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  8. Thanks for the info. I will look for it.

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  9. Had not heard of this book. What I enjoyed in this post is the interaction between the young man at the co-op and you. For me, it is enjoyable to meet people in all places and find things to discuss and to share stories.

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  10. Nope, me neither. Interesting how the young man followed up with you regarding nursery rhymes, no less!

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  11. Nope..I only know the Old Fashioned Mother Goose :)

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  12. I don't know this book either, but it sounds like a lot of fun!

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  13. We were going through our children's books after our move seeing what our grand kids would like. Interesting there were these subtle gender differences... like the boy bear was a doctor and the girl bear was a nurse. It was like that throughout the book. Disappointing.

    But when we were flying back from Santa Ana airport, a lovely woman in uniform walked through the terminal. She was a pilot and the four stripes on her epilettes identified her as the captain... a fact I pointed out to my grand daughter.

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  14. I've never heard of this book until now. It looks wonderful...!

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  15. ....and her I thought I'd done gone and read each and every children's book. Now I wanna!!! Heeehe!

    God bless ya sweetie and have a marvelous day!!! :o)

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  16. I have to get it for my grandson, what a cool book. My kids were SRSLY into Ogden Nash, but I bought them things like "We Eat Dinner The BathTub..." My mother always called all of us (herself incld) a 'bit peculiar..." :}

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  17. It sounds absolutely delightful!!! I'm off to Google it!!! Thanks for the heads up!! You are wonderful!! Hope you are well...just stopping by to say "hi!" to my friend :-)) Love, Janine XO

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  18. No I've never heard of it but I would love to get hold of an original copy of Mother Goose. Apparently that is one of the books that Barnes and Noble decided to drop from their range, unless specifically ordered. (I think I'm right in saying this because last spring Larry and I went to B and N to get a copy and they didn't have it.
    I don't like anything scientific so I won't be reading that copy but it did make me think of the original.
    This morning I was in the town looking at The Three Little Pigs. I like that story and it is sooo good to read to little ones because you can huff and puff as much as you want and they will just love it. I didn't buy it but I wanted to.
    Blessings, Star

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  19. I got a little twinge when I saw the cover, I think I might have seen this book before but I'm not sure. It sounds like something I would have liked as a child. I'm going to check Amazon and see if they have it. Thanks DJan.

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  20. this is fantastic!
    i have a very satisfyingly growing pile of childrens books (i especially love nursery rhymes and english stories).
    this will be a welcome addition :)

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