The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book,  Assembled by Iona and Peter Opie, Illustrated by Joan Hassall

            This anthology incorporates many different wordplays and poems. It includes baby games, lullabies, songs, educational poems, riddles, and tongue-twisters. Most of the poems are fairly short and only a few lines in length. Other poems are a few pages long but are separated into several parts. There are many familiar nursery rhymes and songs, and some that are lesser-known but still useful, fun, and educational. There are multiple poems on each page and some black and white illustrations for most of the poems. Since this is a classic collection of nursery rhymes, there are concepts in a few of the poems that are not politically correct or appropriate for children anymore. Some of my favorite selections from the collection are the nursery rhymes that I grew up singing like “Hickory, Dickory, Dock,” “Jack be Nimble,” and “Humpty Dumpty” (pages 24-25). The book classifies these short rhymes as “Jingles.”

            Preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders would benefit from selections of this anthology. As previously mentioned, not all of the poems are appropriate at present, so I would not keep it in the classroom library. However, I would love to refer to this book when selecting poems, especially nursery rhymes, to include in class time. Many teachers and parents have neglected nursery rhymes, but nursery rhymes can provide such valuable training with young children for hearing rhyme and rhythm. Additionally, these poems are ideal for young children since most of them are simple, engaging, and short. Possibly for third or fourth graders, the riddle poems would be fun for them to find the answer while being exposed to new vocabulary, rhyme, and problem-solving. For social studies, this book incorporates poems about history that help students remember events or order of monarchs.