Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:
* They are officially published under that name * They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author * They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
A few were new to me, but reading it I was struck by how kids today don’t memorize things like this as often. I think we simply had fewer books to choose from so I reread constantly as a child and easily committed poems to memory. My kids read pretty constantly but know almost nothing by memory.
I saw a reviewer felt like the illustrations were padding out the length but to be honest I found them very helpful for explaining old fashioned words and items from the poems. Maddie noted how so many of them were about farming or how they helped you remember things like how many months in a day and were practical.
Many new rhymes (or I don't recall them) and some good old favorites from my youth. Nico is starting to be aware of his surroundings, holding his head, making more facial expressions and definitely looking at the pages. I read to him during smiles and cranky crying. Something tells me I will read this book several times in the next few years. Thank you to Catherine Lewer, a client of Buttonwood's, for such a lovely illustrated treasure. I look forward to hearing Nico read them to me some day in the future.
I was pretty conflicted as to what rating to give this. Personally I thought it came off as being a cheap public domain reproduction with far too many illustrations to help up the page count. But my son ADORED it and would have sat down and listened to the whole thing in one reading if I had had the patience to do so (I didn't so it was spread out over time).
Summary: Collection of famous rhymes for children. Genre: poetry Mentor text trait: Organization: rhyme; word choice: funny combinations which not always make sense; voice (singing, some were adapted into children's songs) Classroom application: Read aloud Reading level: grades K-3, BL 4.5