To Market! To Market!

Mother Goose Library #2

by Peter Spier (Illustrator)

A selection of traditional nursery rhymes with illustrations that reflect early American town and country life.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

52 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Peter Spier has established himself as one of the most gifted illustrators in this county. His Noah's Ark was the 1978 Caldecott Award winner, while The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night was a Caldecott Honor book in 1962. The firs two books in his widely acclaimed Mother Goose Library, London Bridge Is Falling Down! and To Market! To Market! were winner and runner-up respectively for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. The Erie Canal and Noah's Ark both won Christopher Awards, while Gobble, Growl, Grunt received Honorable Mention in the first Children's Science Book Award program, sponsored by the New York Academy of Science.

Born and educated in Amsterdam, Mr. Spier came to New York in 1952 after serving in the Royal Dutch Navy and working for a number of years as a reporter for Elsevier's Weekly, Holland's largest magazine. He has illustrated over a hundred books and has contributed a series of murals to the H. F. Du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware.

Reviews

[Charlie Moses · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spier is the most fantastic artist - and his work here is wonderful, illustrating a collection of applicable mother goose rhymes with a renderings of a real, historical town in Delaware during the 18th century. BUT it's more interesting to an adult than to a child. This one didn't hold my grand-daughter's attention long enough to get very far into the book. She's too young to pore over the illustrations, which are far more interesting in their historical accuracy to an adult.

[MaryAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I accidentally checked out this book thinking it was a Caldecott Honor Book. It isn’t but could be! I love Spier’s detailed illustrations and the historical summary at the end.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

We own this book and even though it's falling apart, I've held onto it, because I love the illustrations so much! I love the time 1700s period the book is set in for these nursery rhymes - some familiar, some not as familiar. His drawings really give a wonderful sense of history and has an intimate sense of the seasons and little details. His books are such a joy to look at!

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable combination of common nursery rhyme favorites with detailed historically-based images of New Castle, Delaware. There is also a two-page history that explains things. Wish there were many more like this one!