Mother Goose Treasury

by Raymond Briggs

More than four hundred children's rhymes in a large volume with impressive illustrations

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry, Childrens, Nursery Rhymes, Fiction

217 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Raymond Redvers Briggs was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist, and author who had achieved critical and popular success among adults and children. He was best known for his story "The Snowman", which is shown every Christmas on British television in cartoon form and on the stage as a musical.

His first three major works, Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (both featuring a curmudgeonly Father Christmas who complains incessantly about the "blooming snow"), and Fungus the Bogeyman, were in the form of comics rather than the typical children's-book format of separate text and illustrations. The Snowman (1978) was entirely wordless, and illustrated with only pencil crayons. The Snowman became Briggs' best-known work when in 1982 it was made into an Oscar nominated animated cartoon, that has been shown every year since on British television.

Briggs continued to work in a similar format, but with more adult content, in Gentleman Jim (1980), a sombre look at the working class trials of Jim and Hilda Bloggs, closely based on his parents. When the Wind Blows (1982) confronted the trusting, optimistic Bloggs couple with the horror of nuclear war, and was praised in the British House of Commons for its timeliness and originality. The topic was inspired after Briggs watched a Panorama documentary on nuclear contingency planning, and the dense format of the page was inspired by a Swiss publisher's miniature version of Father Christmas. This book was turned into a two-handed radio play with Peter Sallis in the male lead role, and subsequently an animated film, featuring John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft. The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984) was a scathing denunciation of the Falklands War. However, Briggs continued to produce humour for children, in works such as the Unlucky Wally series and The Bear.

He was recognized as The Children's Author of the Year in 1993 by the British Book Awards. His graphic novel Ethel and Ernest, which portrayed his parents' 41-year marriage, won Best Illustrated Book in the 1999 British Book Awards.

Reviews

[Matthew Bianchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humpty Dumpty/Humpty Alexander Dumpty is a normal human-sized old man egg. In the 1990 North American hand-drawn animated musical Cinar And Little Golden Book episode video, The Real Story Of Humpty Dumpty, he sat on a wall and had a great fall and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men could not put him together again. Before he was up on the wall, he saved Princess Allegra from Glitch the witch and the witch’s poison custard pie then became the hero for the King’s kingdom after he started his journey to the palace by running away to the palace that was so very deeper from the farm that belonged to Farmer Dumpty the fair light white skin old man peasant farmer. There, he was called a freak by the hens and the chickens in Farmer Dumpty’s henhouse then Farmer Dumpty told him not to mind the hens and the chickens and that it was just that he was different because something meant that he had to look kinda like the foolish Ugly Duckling. Everyone with-on the farm laughed at him, and he ran away, but he had grown into the handsome swan admired by everyone located around when he came back. The story began not too many moons ago. Glitch’s street-smart cat, Scratch was working for her because she turned out to be the well-known one poor excuse to have for a witch. She told Scratch that there was a blue-colored moon in the night sky and that she can only get at Allegra when there was a blue-colored moon. She then also said that Allegra would not be located around much longer once she fed her the poison custard pie. She checked her recipe for the poison custard pie then saw that it needed three fresh eggs in a wicked spell. If Humpty was not around to save Princess Allegra from Glitch and her poison custard pie, she would die by the time she would eat the poison custard pie. The point was that Glitch decided to poison the princess with the help of the poison custard pie because she did not want the princess around no more. Then in the 1987 North American real-live-action musical Wee Sing episode movie, Wee Sing King Cole’s Party, Humpty got put back together again, and he greeted Mary the beautifulest and loveliest younger cutie girl that owned the little lamb, and her buddies, Jack and Jill the sibling children that fell down the hill while they were fetching the pail of water, and their friend, Little Boy Blue the child shepherd that loved sleeping under his haystack and blew within his golden horn really loud in order to get his golden horn to help him call his dairy cows and his sheep in whenever they wandered off and found the Farmer in the Dell (Sam A. Mowrey) to watch over his dairy cows and his sheep while he was gone who were heading for Old King Cole’s party in Old King Cole’s castle located in London, England in order to join Old King Cole the royal merry old soul king and his very good wife, the queen and their trumpeter and their servants and their subjects and their guests and their fiddlers three for the biggest celebration in order to celebrate the well-known 100 years of peace throughout the King’s whole kingdom. Mary made the white wool mittens all by herself from her very own lamb’s wool, and Jill brought her top favorite kitten because her pet mother cat had kittens, and Jack brought his warm yellow blanket that turned out to be his top favorite thing in the planet Earth world on the planet, Earth that he thought he would not give way up ever, and Little Boy Blue brought his golden horn that he somehow used to help him call his dairy cows and his sheep in whenever they wandered off until he found the Farmer in the Dell (Sam A. Mowrey) to watch over his dairy cows and his sheep while he was gone so that he’d keep an uh, you have to watch them every minute, you know, and Dweedle the quacking duck that turned out to be the leader of the Six Little Ducks sent the finest and soft and light feather that he somehow ever grew on his back during the Six Little Ducks song, and the Crooked Man sent his crooked and shiny and bright sixpence coin that he found upon the crooked stile during the There Was A Crooked Man song, and Humpty got Mary and her friends to the party on time with a magic word called “Please.” Then after Mary and her friends gave their gifts to the king, the king thanked them all for the greatest of gifts that were given from the heart because they made him get to feel like the king, and then he told the guests and the servants and the subjects to let the big dance begin. Mary and her friends, Jack and Jill and Little Boy Blue sang and danced at the party of their lives for there would not be the well-known other one like that for 100 years, then after the party, they went home because Humpty saw to that. The king kept their presents because he would have traded everything on the table for the gifts that the children gave from their hearts. In the 1991 North American real-live-action musical Good Housekeeping Kids Klassics Kids Sing Along episode video, Melody Magic In Toyland, the sequel episode movie to the 1990 North American real-live-action musical Good Housekeeping Kids Klassics Kids Sing Along episode video, Melody Magic In Musicland, the movie with the Chopsticks song and the This Old Man song and the Little Miss Muffet song and the The Itsy Bitsy Spider song and the Row Row Row Your Boat song and the The More We Get Together song and the Little Bo Peep/Three Little Kittens/Oh, Where Oh, Where Has My Little Dog Gone? medley song and the Oh, Where Oh, Where Has My Little Song Gone? song and the You’ve Got To Sing When Your Spirit Says Sing song and the Melody Magic song, Humpty was Josh’s Mother Goose toy, and he was with his very good friends, Old King Cole the royal merry old soul king and the Cat With The Fiddle Violin. They felt too surprised and too shocked to see that Josh was too old to play with them and they explained this to Melody Magic (Dina Murray/Dina James) who brought them to life within normal human-size with her magic dust through the We’ve Got Big, Big Trouble song and their brand-new friend, Josh’s computer (Liam Macintosh) that sang and danced and performed the I’m A Computer song in order to teach Melody and her friends everything about computer technologies on computers. Then Melody introduced the computer to her friends. Old King Cole sang the Be True To Your Heart song in order to teach us how to look true to much about our hearts and look very all-heart. Looking very all-heart is Old King Cole’s way of choosing to look kinda like the friend. The cat sang the I’m A Cool Cat song in order to teach us how to count and look kinda like cool cats. Choosing to look kinda like the cool cat is the cat’s great way of choosing to look kinda like the friend. Humpty decided to sing the I’m A Good Egg song on his wall when he decided to teach everyone much about how to look kinda like good egg friends. He was the main singer when he sat on the wall and the two flowers that grew by his wall were the back singers. They worked together to sing the I’m A Good Egg song in order to teach us how to look kinda like good egg friends. Choosing to look kinda like the good egg is Humpty’s great way of choosing to look kinda like the friend. Then after the song, Humpty had a great fall with a very loud crash that woke Josh up. Josh was so surprised and too very shocked to see Humpty in pieces and he wanted to know much about how Melody and Humpty and the cat and Old King Cole got to his bedroom. They had to find a way to save Humpty, and they found a way to save Humpty. It was Josh’s computer (Liam Macintosh). The five friends worked together to save Humpty, then Humpty got right up again when he was all put back together again, thanks to Josh and the computer. Humpty thanked the computer for saving his life then the computer said that it was nothing and Melody told the computer that saving Humpty’s life was important and she then also told the computer that he was really a good egg at heart. Then Melody sang the Everybody Needs A Friend song to show Josh and her friends and the computer what it means to be put in need of a friend to tell their troubles to. That had to look kinda like Melody’s great way to have friends. Then after the song, Melody shook hands with Josh and she then Josh hugged each other and Humpty and the computer and the cat and Old King Cole felt grateful for Melody for saving Josh. Josh asked Melody if he was awake, then Melody told him that it was only a dream. She gave Josh a kiss because she loved him and then she then the computer and their friends were back to where they should be. Then in the next morning, Josh’s mom (Babe Hack) woke him up for breakfast time, then Josh told his mom that he wanted to keep Humpty and the cat and Old King Cole, then his mom was too glad that he wanted to keep his old friends and they hugged each other with happiness joy thanks to Melody saving Josh all the way within the journey from looking too old for Humpty and the cat and Old King Cole with the help of Humpty and the cat and the computer and Old King Cole. Humpty Dumpty/Humpty Alexander Dumpty had to look kinda like my responsibility to save Princess Allegra from Glitch the witch and the witch’s poison custard pie within The Real Story Of Humpty Dumpty (1990) and he had to look kinda like my responsibility to take Mary and Jack and Jill and Little Boy Blue to Old King Cole’s party in Old King Cole’s castle located in London, England in Wee Sing King Cole’s Party (1987) and he had to look kinda like my responsibility to have good egg friends in Good Housekeeping Kids Klassics Kids Sing Along Melody Magic In Toyland (1991) then he had to look kinda like my top favorite main reason why I like the royal fairytale castle soldier horses over and over again.

[Matthew James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humpty Dumpty/Humpty Alexander Dumpty is a normal human-sized old man egg. In the 1990 North American hand-drawn animated musical Cinar and Little Golden Book episode video, The Real Story Of Humpty Dumpty, he sat on a wall and had a great fall and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men could not put him together again. Before he was up on the wall, he saved Princess Allegra from Glitch the witch and the witch’s poison custard pie then became the hero for the King’s kingdom after he started his journey to the palace by running away to the palace that was so very deeper from the farm that belonged to Farmer Dumpty the fair light white skin old man peasant farmer. There, he was called a freak by the hens and the chickens in Farmer Dumpty’s henhouse then Farmer Dumpty told him not to mind the hens and the chickens and that it was just that he was different because something meant that he had to look kinda like the foolish Ugly Duckling. Everyone with-on the farm laughed at him, and he ran away, but he had grown into the handsome swan admired by everyone located around when he came back. The story began not too many moons ago. Glitch’s street-smart cat, Scratch was working for her because she turned out to be the well-known one poor excuse to have for a witch. She told Scratch that there was a blue-colored moon in the night sky and that she can only get at Allegra when there was a blue-colored moon. She then also said that Allegra would not be located around much longer once she fed her the poison custard pie. She checked her recipe for the poison custard pie then saw that it needed three fresh eggs in a wicked spell. If Humpty was not around to save Princess Allegra from Glitch and her poison custard pie, she would die by the time she would eat the poison custard pie. The point was that Glitch decided to poison the princess with the help of the poison custard pie because she did not want the princess around no more. Then in the 1987 North American real-live-action musical Wee Sing episode movie, Wee Sing King Cole’s Party, Humpty got put back together again, and he greeted Mary the beautifulest and loveliest younger cutie girl that owned the little lamb, and her buddies, Jack and Jill the sibling children that fell down the hill while they were fetching the pail of water, and their friend, Little Boy Blue the child shepherd that loved sleeping under his haystack and blew within his golden horn really loud in order to get his golden horn to help him call his dairy cows and his sheep in whenever they wandered off and found the Farmer in the Dell (Sam A. Mowrey) to watch over his dairy cows and his sheep while he was gone who were heading for Old King Cole’s party in Old King Cole’s castle located in London, England in order to join Old King Cole the royal merry old soul king and his very good wife, the queen and their trumpeter and their servants and their subjects and their guests and their fiddlers three for the biggest celebration in order to celebrate the well-known 100 years of peace throughout the King’s whole kingdom. Mary made the white wool mittens all by herself from her very own lamb’s wool, and Jill brought her top favorite kitten because her pet mother cat had kittens, and Jack brought his warm yellow blanket that turned out to be his top favorite thing in the planet Earth world on the planet, Earth that he thought he would not give way up ever, and Little Boy Blue brought his golden horn that he somehow used to help him call his dairy cows and his sheep in whenever they wandered off until he found the Farmer in the Dell (Sam A. Mowrey) to watch over his dairy cows and his sheep while he was gone so that he’d keep an eye right on them, you have to watch them every minute, you know, and Dweedle the quacking duck that turned out to be the leader of the Six Little Ducks sent the finest and soft and light feather that he somehow ever grew on his back during the Six Little Ducks song, and the Crooked Man sent his crooked and shiny and bright sixpence coin that he found upon the crooked stile during the There Was A Crooked Man song, and Humpty got Mary and her friends to the party on time with a magic word called “Please.” Then after Mary and her friends gave their gifts to the king, the king thanked them all for the greatest of gifts that were given from the heart because they made him get to feel like the king, and then he told the guests and the servants and the subjects to let the big dance begin. Mary and her friends, Jack and Jill and Little Boy Blue sang and danced at the party of their lives for there would not be the well-known other one like that for 100 years, then after the party, they went home because Humpty saw to that. The king kept their presents because he would have traded everything on the table for the gifts that the children gave from their hearts. In the 1991 North American real-live-action musical Good Housekeeping Kids Klassics Kids Sing Along episode video, Melody Magic In Toyland, the sequel episode movie to the 1990 North American real-live-action musical Good Housekeeping Kids Klassics Kids Sing Along episode video, Melody Magic In Musicland, the movie with the Chopsticks song and the This Old Man song and the Little Miss Muffet song and the The Itsy Bitsy Spider song and the Row Row Row Your Boat song and the The More We Get Together song and the Little Bo Peep/Three Little Kittens/Oh, Where Oh, Where Has My Little Dog Gone? medley song and the Oh, Where Oh, Where Has My Little Song Gone? song and the You’ve Got To Sing When Your Spirit Says Sing song and the Melody Magic song, Humpty was Josh’s Mother Goose toy, and he was with his very good friends, Old King Cole the royal merry old soul king and the Cat With The Fiddle Violin. They felt too surprised and too shocked to see that Josh was too old to play with them and they explained this to Melody Magic (Dina Murray/Dina James) who brought them to life within normal human-size with her magic dust through the We’ve Got Big, Big Trouble song and their brand-new friend, Josh’s computer (Liam Macintosh) that sang and danced and performed the I’m A Computer song in order to teach Melody and her friends everything about computer technologies on computers. Then Melody introduced the computer to her friends. Old King Cole sang the Be True To Your Heart song in order to teach us how to look true to much about our hearts and look very all-heart. Looking very all-heart is Old King Cole’s way of choosing to look kinda like the friend. The cat sang the I’m A Cool Cat song in order to teach us how to count and look kinda like cool cats. Choosing to look kinda like the cool cat is the cat’s great way of choosing to look kinda like the friend. Humpty decided to sing the I’m A Good Egg song on his wall when he decided to teach everyone much about how to look kinda like good egg friends. He was the main singer when he sat on the wall and the two flowers that grew by his wall were the back singers. They worked together to sing the I’m A Good Egg song in order to teach us how to look kinda like good egg friends. Choosing to look kinda like the good egg is Humpty’s great way of choosing to look kinda like the friend. Then after the song, Humpty had a great fall with a very loud crash that woke Josh up. Josh was so surprised and too very shocked to see Humpty in pieces and he wanted to know much about how Melody and Humpty and the cat and Old King Cole got to his bedroom. They had to find a way to save Humpty, and they found a way to save Humpty. It was Josh’s computer (Liam Macintosh). The five friends worked together to save Humpty, then Humpty got right up again when he was all put back together again, thanks to Josh and the computer. Humpty thanked the computer for saving his life then the computer said that it was nothing and Melody told the computer that saving Humpty’s life was important and she then also told the computer that he was really a good egg at heart. Then Melody sang the Everybody Needs A Friend song to show Josh and her friends and the computer what it means to be put in need of a friend to tell their troubles to. That had to look kinda like Melody’s great way to have friends. Then after the song, Melody shook hands with Josh and she then Josh hugged each other and Humpty and the computer and the cat and Old King Cole felt grateful for Melody for saving Josh. Josh asked Melody if he was awake, then Melody told him that it was only a dream. She gave Josh a kiss because she loved him and then she then the computer and their friends were back to where they should be. Then in the next morning, Josh’s mom (Babe Hack) woke him up for breakfast time, then Josh told his mom that he wanted to keep Humpty and the cat and Old King Cole, then his mom was too glad that he wanted to keep his old friends and they hugged each other with happiness joy thanks to Melody saving Josh all the way within the journey from looking too old for Humpty and the cat and Old King Cole with the help of Humpty and the cat and the computer and Old King Cole. Humpty Dumpty/Humpty Alexander Dumpty had to look kinda like my responsibility to save Princess Allegra from Glitch the witch and the witch’s poison custard pie within The Real Story Of Humpty Dumpty (1990) and he had to look kinda like my responsibility to take Mary and Jack and Jill and Little Boy Blue to Old King Cole’s party in Old King Cole’s castle located in London, England in Wee Sing King Cole’s Party (1987) and he had to look kinda like my responsibility to have good egg friends in Good Housekeeping Kids Klassics Kids Sing Along Melody Magic In Toyland (1991) then he had to look kinda like my top favorite main reason why I like the royal fairytale castle soldier horses over and over again.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miss 3 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.

This was a great find. We've read lots of poetry collections and really liked the range in this one. Its been very popular with her!

[Shakena Gwinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the old tale about mother goose. She a very protective mother over her ducklings. In this story,something bad happens and she must find them. I think it symbolizing life, parent s are so protected over their children, you don't want anything to happen to them. So you try your best to keep them safe.

[Daniel Pool · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly LONG! Great illustrations from Briggs and one hell of a valuable compendium if you like this sort of thing. Other reviewers have correctly mentioned that these get surprisingly dark by contemporary standards, so maybe read this to your little one while they are quite young and they care more about rhyming sounds than the actual content of what you're saying.

[Jesica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some fond memories for a few of these poems but a lot of them were a lot darker than I remember mother goose being.

[Julia Woodard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mother Goose Treasury by Raymond Briggs is a book of poetry that is intended for children from Kindergarten to 2nd grade. This book won a Kate Greenway Medal in 1966. The book contains well over 250 nursery rhymes such as "Humpty Dumpty" or "Little Ms. Muffet."
I liked this book and I think young readers would this book appealing as well because it had several interesting characters, bright, colorful illustrations, and witty, humorous rhymes. This text would most benefit from small group instruction. The focus of this instruction should mainly be on phonemic awareness. The teacher should have the students listen to the rhymes and have them raise their hands when they hear a rhyme. The teacher can also have the students identify which two words they heard that rhymed. For example, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall" wall and fall are the rhyming words. The teacher may also want to introduce story structure and have the students identify the various settings and characters. For example, Little Ms. Muffet is the main character of a nursery rhyme and the setting is outdoors.

[Christina Leone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Briggs, Raymond (1966). This book contains a collection of 408 rhymes and 897 illustrations. This collection contains several rhymes per page. Each rhyme has its own illustration(s). The pages alternate from pen and ink illustrations, and then turn the page to colorful illustrations, turn the page to pen and ink illustrations. Each illustration is integrated with the text. For example, "Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair; Says Simple Simon to the pieman, Let me taste your ware." A colorful illustration is above the text showing a pieman carrying pies on his head. Standing in front of the man is Simon, reaching up and out as if to take a pie. The text is designed for a higher level reader to read to a small child, (infant through early elementary), as the text is in a smaller font and can present challenging materiel for young readers. For example, in "The death and burial of Cock Robin; Who'll make his shroud? I said the Beetle With my thread and needle, I'll make the shroud." The illustration gives an indication of what the text is saying even when it may be a higher level concept, the pictures clues provide the scaffold to the vocabulary. Young readers will like the sing song nursery rhymes to have them read over and over building fluency and developing phonemic awareness when hearing the classics many adults today grew up with such as "Three Blind Mice" and "Peter" the pumpkin eater. Young readers are intrigued with the rhymes content providing opportunities to intrigue and inspire their imaginations. These classics have stood the test of time and are a joy to share with young readers of today.

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have vague recollections of nursery rhymes from your childhood - but certainly can't remember the words? Well this book will take you part of the way there - it'll at least give you the words. Unfortunately you'll have to head to the web to find the tune to go with it!

The illustrations in this 1966 version of Mother Goose by Raymond Briggs are, as you would expect, a highlight.

Like all oral traditions there are certainly minor differences between some of the nursery rhymes I learnt as a child in Australia, and these earlier, British, versions eg:
I say Inci Winci spider - Raymond prefers Ipsey Wipsey
I say the Grand Old Duke of York - Raymond prefers Brave Old Duke of York
I say Rock-a-bye, baby, on the tree top - Raymond prefers Hush-a-bye, baby, on the tree top

But overall a very handy book to expand my repertoire from just Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

My personal reaction to the book was that it was a classic. For example Little Miss Muffett was one.

The purpose of the book would be for read aloud for curriculum reasons. This would be a good read for K-1. I would introduce the idea of poetry with this book. This book is full of nursery rhymes and i would emphasize on the lyrical sections and how they are natural rhymes. The illustrations correspond perfectly with the text and enhance the meaning. Even though the books illustrations are older, children need to appreciate the past and correspond that to the future. Each poem has its own illustration that enhances the characteristic of the poem.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a Christmas gift, the year I was two. It's not a book I'll ever "finish," because I'll keep dipping back into it for the rest of my life.

The 408 rhymes were reproduced from the work by renowned British folklorists Peter and Iona Opie, and include many that are not found in other collections, and which, I am certain, first inspired me to be a writer.

Raymond Briggs' illustrations create a wonderful artistic balance across each two page spread, and vary in style from rich, vibrant, colors to impressionistic and whimsical line drawings of pen and ink.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

After attending Betsy Diamant-Cohen's "Mother Goose on the Loose" which teaches librarians how to better integrate songs and rhymes into a story program for the babies, I continue to be interested in reading over these wonderful rhymes. This book is quickly becoming my favorite because I love Raymond Birggs' artwork and the way he presented these traditional rhymes that so many of us know and love.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A hearty collection of nursery rhymes, many, many of which I had never seen before, which is impressive at this point! Reading these also made it clear how many nursery rhymes deal with harming, abusing or otherwise mistreated women. Then there's the nursery rhyme that rhyme "slut" with "dirt," so, y'know, not a collection I'd actually share with children.

The illustrations actually weren't my thing for the most part., but I like the expansiveness of the collection.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

1966 Kate Greenaway Medal