FirstSecond’s new Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists is one of those rare parental treasures: a picture book that kids and parents can really enjoy together. Editor Chris Duffy invited some of the greatest names in comic illustration to choose their favorite Mother Goose classics and illustrate them to their taste.
The result is an absolute delight from the first page to the last. How can you not love a book that includes Jules Feiffer’s “Girls and Boys Come Out to Play”; Lucy Knisley’s “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” (a fantastic rock-n-roll reinterpretation of the original); Richard Thompson’s “There Was An Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket”; Gahan Wilson’s (!) “Itsy-Bitsy Spider”; Mike Mignola’s “Solomon Grundy”; Jaime Hernandez’s “Jack and Jill”; Jordan Crane’s “Old Mother Hubbard”; Vera Bosgol’s “There Was a Little Girl”; Gilbert Hernandez’s “Humpty Dumpty” and Gene Yang’s “Pat-a-Cake”?
That’s nothing like a comprehensive list, by the way — the table of contents for this set my mouth watering as soon as I saw it, and the live-fire bedtime exercise has been an unqualified success. My three year old is all over this like fudge on sundaes.
FirstSecond were kind enough to let me include a selection of opening pages from the book — click through below to get a preview!
Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists
