Anna Banana: 101 Jump Rope Rhymes

by Joanna Cole, Alan Tiegreen (Illustrator)

The must-have book of jump rope rhymes! How many times can you jump rope? Can you hop, skip, and double-dutch? With these rhymes and rhythms, jump rope is even more fun. There are red-hot pepper rhymes for jumping very fast, counting rhymes to keep the beat, and rhymes for jumping in and out. There are even fortune-telling rhymes that answer questions and help you predict the future! Jumping rope is not only great exercise, it's also great entertainent. With Anna Banana , you'll never run out of chants to use while swinging the ropes. Learn over one hundred traditional rhymes that will make rope jumping challenging and, best of all, fun!

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Games, Reference, School

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Joanna Cole, who also wrote under the pseudonym B. J. Barnet, was an author of children’s books who teaches science.

She is most famous as the author of The Magic School Bus series of children's books. Joanna Cole wrote over 250 books ranging from her first book Cockroach to her famous series Magic School Bus.

Cole was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby East Orange. She loved science as a child, and had a teacher she says was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University before graduating from the City College of New York with a B.A. in psychology. After some graduate education courses, she spent a year as a librarian in a Brooklyn elementary school. Cole subsequently became a letters correspondent at Newsweek, and then a senior editor for Doubleday Books for Young Readers.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I literally fell asleep reading this collection of jump-rope rhymes, most of which are between two to four lines in length. I guess lying on the sofa keeps them from being as stimulating as when one is jumping and hopping as fast as one can.

As a comic strip buff, I did find it interesting that rhymes about Popeye and Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead made it into the folklore, but that was as good as it got for me.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for something that I'm involved in on my job. It teaches not only jump rope rhymes, but the history of jump roping and how those rhymes came to be. Pretty interesting.

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite childhood books from the 90’s!

[Edward Sojuwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! Someone has the foresight to publish what long ago was thought too ridiculous to put into print: the little rhymes girls and boys rap while jumping rope. Joanna Cole has done it and done it right! Now parents can memorize old favorites that young kids have known for millennia, leaving the next generation to come up with new ones as they always have! Maybe for another volume! Who knows? Read, savor, then grab that rope and jump in!!!
Four stars
Jump for the love...of cool rhymes!!!

[Sherry Scheline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book of jump rope rhymes. Many of these you will know if you are a child of the 80’s. Our lesson at library program was about jump roping. It shocked me how many of the children did not know how to jump rope. This is your reminder to check out a jump rope and this book and teach your child how to jump rope.

[Victoria Hanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

More people need to get out there and jump rope with these rhymes!

[Ava Rosborough · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like to jump-rope and read this book at the same time

[Courtney Raymer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Response: When I was younger I always jumped rope at recess and used a lot of these songs while doing so. They are very catchy and fun to learn. This is a book that promotes getting active in a fun easy way. Since these are songs used while jumping rope this book is considered poetry from folk tradition.

Purpose:
-rhythm: A lot of these poems are meant to be in song form and a little sped up due to the fact you are jumping rope while saying them. All children really like poems they can have fun with rather than just read and talk about.
-rhyme: Some of the poems throughout this book have rhyming going on. This also helps with the rhythm aspect of the poems. Children can easily remember these poems if they rhyme which is nice as well.

This would be a good book to introduce to the students before you go outside for recess so they can put the poems to good use. I don't think I would ever use this book as a read aloud.

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. So I got this from my local library and was really excited to teach these to my daughter this summer. After browsing through the book, I noticed the previous borrowed had covered some controversal or naughty rhymes with pieces and tape.
I remember a lot of these from my youth and nice and naughty ones too but I'm torn as to what to share with my daughter. But I've tried to change the words to the naughty ones or just skip them.
But I'm still very surprised that kids where we live have no interest in jump roping and when I start saying a jump rope rhyme they are so surprised and excited to hear them. But once I stop, they stop jumping too.
I haven't given up, as my daughter is only 6 and plan to make sure that she learns many rhymes and master jumping before she starts any other major video games! Wish me luck.
Love the book!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember loving this book as a kid, we always brought it out while playing jump rope!
I think that this book is a very fun book filled with silly rhymes for kids to listen to and chant. I think that it has a good variety of different types of rhymes, and a few different levels of difficulties. I think that this book would be age appropriate for older elementary school, into middle school. Children could use the rhymes to learn about new things that they have not discussed before, or just use them in the class room for an activity along with a language arts lesson.
All around I love this book, and hope to find a copy for myself one day!

[Susan Tuttle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved to jump rope when I was in elementary school. My friends and I did say some rhymes as we jumped, but we ran out of fun ones to do, so we always said the same ones over and over. I felt like I was opening a treasure chest reading all the rhymes! I am an elementary education student and I could see myself teaching these to my students as part of a poetry or language arts lesson, and then using them again in P.E. So fun! I will definitely look this book up again to use in my future teaching.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

My little sister, dressed in PINK
Washed all the dishes in the kitchen SINK
How many dishes did she break??
One! Two! Three! . . .

I know you think I'm just trying to boost the number of books I've read so I can look smarter, but that's not actually the case. This is a pretty fun book. Who knew there were so many jump rope rhymes? Obviously my grade school education was substandard. Thankfully there are books like this to help me fill in the gaps.

[Genie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haha, I loved this book when I was in elementary school! I used this book to help me with my new jump rope rhymes during recess! This poetry book has rhythm and rhyme, that help with the beat of the jump. Now, as a teacher in a school who has recess duty, I've introduced this book to some of my girls [and a couple of boys] who are really into jumping rope! They enjoy it and love it as much as I do.

[Andrea Salcedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Anna Banana
Author: Joanna Cole
Recommended age groups: 4-8

This is such a great book. I remember reading this when I was young. It has so many rhymes and it teaches you how to jump to them using a jump rope. Most all are funny and silly. They can be sung and are easy to remember.

I got a little excited when I saw this on the poems list because I got to bring this book out from my old library from when i was young. I use to jump to some of these songs.

[Halli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is super fun because it has rhymes and the author was very creative. However I feel that the illustrations are lacking. There are not a lot of pictures and every picture in the book is plain. There are no colors. The book is all black and white. The jump rope rhymes are really fun for children and I enjoy that part of the book, but wish that there were either more illustrations or at least some color on the pictures that are on the pages.

[H Wells Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a book about jump-roping; the rhyming angle of this book is very interesting. Rhyming is a part of language
defined as; correspondence in terminal sounds of units of composition or utterance (as two or more words or lines of verse).* This is a phenomenal collection of rhymes which can be taught to students while
they study the role rhyming and rhymes play in the English language.

[Monique Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna Banana: 101 Jump Rope Rhymes
By: Joanna Cole
Age: 4-6

This book is adorable. There are a bunch of silly little rhythms to help little children jump rope. Some of which I use to sing as a little girl. Highly recommended for a kindergarten to 2nd grade class. Girls will go gaga over this book.

[Ashley Loosle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book! I grew up with this and I remember always reading it with my sisters. When I saw it on the table for options to read in my Children's Literature class, I just had to look through it one more time. I was surprised with how many rhymes I remembered. This is a great book for children. They would love it. I know I did.

[Katie Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books when I was a child. I literally poured over it and studied it as if I were a college freshman preparing for her first exam. Jump roping during recess in elementary school was awesome and this book was the best!

[Ta]

Really great rhymes for children jumping rope, hula hooping, choosing who is "it" or just to say and count until tired. I needed it as a reference. It has been a while since playing with young children.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child I really enjoyed jumping rope to some of these rhymes. As an adult, I enjoy the rhymes and illustrations, but was also interested in the additional resources available regarding jumping rope, American folklore, and worldwide children's games.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so fun for children! I have very fond memories of these rhymes from my jumprope days. (I like giving this book and a jump rope for birthdays.)

[Magenta Cooly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved this book ever since I was little, and I still never get tired of reading it. It's silly, enticing, and a lot of fun!

[Katya Smereka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that I will do these rhymes the next time I do a jump rope thingy

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will come in very helpful for my jump rope program this summer!

[Don Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The girls like it.

[Bonnie Jean]

This was a fun book- took me back to my childhood and all the jump rope rhymes we used to say. "Cinderella, dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella...." (Evidently there are variations on this one with different colors!)