Mother Goose Day

When my daughter was born, I re-discovered my love for children’s literature. While collecting books for my baby girl, I started to gravitate towards poetry collections in particular. I love having these books, and we generally read poems every night before bed after we have read some other stories. I love that we can read them again and again, and even memorize them. They just never get old.

Of course, any discussion of children’s poetry or literature will eventually lead to Mother Goose nursery rhymes. They are classic.  We have enjoyed Mother Goose since my daughter was very young; they are among the first rhymes I read to her. They bring back memories from my own childhood, which is something I love about children’s literature in general. Being able to share old classics with my child has been an amazing experience.

Mother Goose has been around since the 17th century! No one knows who the original writer of these famous rhymes was; my guess is there were many writers. Many of the rhymes taught children a simple lesson and often their meanings aren’t what they seem! Many of these nursery rhymes also have little finger plays that go along with them which is fun for the younger kids.

As I mentioned, we have collected many poetry books over the years. Most of them have some Mother Goose rhymes in them, but we have two books devoted exclusively to her. My favorite is the Gyo Fujikawa version. I absolutely love the illustrations in this book and it contains pretty much every rhyme you have ever heard of, and some you probably haven’t! I often give this book to friends who have recently had a baby.

Mother Goose Day is celebrated May 1. You can bet we will be celebrating with some familiar rhymes!

Do you have a favorite Mother Goose poem?  We would love to hear.