Hey, Diddle, Diddle!

Feodor Rojankovsky, Harper and Row, 1942

My copy of The Tall Book of Mother Goose is well worn. I have loved it to pieces. I have a soft spot for Russian born children's book illustrators and Rojankovsky is no exception. Of course I'm not alone in my adoration; he won the Caldecott Medal in 1956.


This Mother Goose collection has some verses I can't find in my other books which adds to the attraction. If I counted correctly it has 102 of the verses. Of course, some of my faves I scanned in for you.

But a few other memorable ones are as follows:

Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

------------------------

There was a crooked man
and he went a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence
against a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat,
which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together
in a little crooked house.

------------------------

There was a little girl
and she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good,
she was very, very, good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.