Mother Goose for Mothers and Fathers and Others
A Historical Look at Nursery Rhymes: Their Words and Those Who Used Them
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
There are hundreds of old nursery rhymes that children would love to hear and adults would love to share with them. Unfortunately, many were composed hundreds of years ago, so now they're not used much anymore because some words are hard to understand. Tiny tots don't care. They just love to hear the sounds of the words. But older kids like to know what the words mean. Sometimes, we adults don't understand them either. This happens so often that several publishers have stopped printing these poems. The bad news? Some wonderful nursery rhymes just fade away. The good news? This book can help. It's filled with information that can "dust off" the old words so readers can see what they meant and hear how they sounded. Readers can also learn how kids and adults lived hundreds of years ago: the games they played, the songs they sang, the foods they ate, the jokes they told, the lessons they learned . . . even the troubles they had when things went bad. The nursery rhymes in this book can help readers bring the past into the present.
Endorsements (2)
“As someone who has lived in Northern England and studied our inherited language, I love the playful lyrics and poems Professor Ohst gives us in this new book. It reminds us that our culture is connected to the stories we tell. It’s also a way we teach our children to invent their own stories. This book is a confirmation of our shared love of word games, poems, and oral history. Professor Ohst’s book reminds us that we have a living oral history that has room for new words and old stories!”
“Nursery rhymes engage parts of ourselves left dormant. Mr. Ohst lights that chamber and lays out a map for understanding riddles and rhymes. Word enthusiasts will enjoy this immersion into the cache of surprises embedded in nursery rhymes. Snickers will surely follow.”
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