I didn't set out to collect books on nursery rhymes but somehow I ended up with eight! It's a mystery as to how I got started. I don't remember growing up listening to a lot of Mother Goose. In fact, before I had kids, I barely knew the words to all but a few.

Yet there I was, reading nursery rhymes to my daughter when she was a baby. She couldn’t protest, and the sound of the words seemed to mesmerize and soothe her. But I assumed that as she got older, she’d lose interest in them. After all, when you think about it, a lot of those rhymes don’t make sense and the words are puzzling to a modern tyke. What’s a tuffet, anyway? Or a sixpence? Or a stile for that matter? Many of the rhymes are not-so-nice—boughs break and cradles fall, Humpty can’t be put together again, Jack breaks his crown. Other rhymes, especially lesser-known ones, are so violent or creepy that I haven’t read them to my daughter. (Some books have made it easier for you, changing the words so that they’re politically correct. For example, instead of whipping her children and putting them to bed, the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe tells them off soundly in one version and kisses them gently in another. The purist in me cringes at the revision, but the parent in me understands why one would prefer a gentler version.)

Anyway, I was wrong. My daughter, a toddler now, still requests rhymes at bedtime and she knows many of them by heart. It helps when you have a book with excellent illustrations (see below). In retrospect, I’m glad I gave my child an early dose of Mother Goose. Nursery or not, this is her first introduction to poetry. When she’s older, I’m looking forward to introducing her to Shel Silverstein. In the meantime I think it’s cool that she marches around the house chanting, “Georgy Porgy, pudding and pie…” Though I wonder if the day will come when she’ll start asking me what the verses mean...

P.S. These are a few of the nursery rhyme books in my haphazard collection:

Nursery Treasury by Jonathan Langley, which I inherited from my sister after much use from her two children, is my daughter’s all-time favorite. I think it’s out of print now, but worth picking up if you can find a copy. The illustrations are very sweet and full of kid-appealing details that children will enjoy poring over (like mice and teddy bears galore). I especially like the eclectic mix of nursery rhymes and songs (“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” “Humpty Dumpty”) with poems by Tennyson and Blake.

Tomie dePaola’s Mother Goose is another favorite in our family. We love the variety—there are over 200 familiar and not-so-familiar nursery rhymes and, of course, dePaola’s whimsical, folksy illustrations are simply divine.

If You Love a Nursery Rhyme  , the newest addition, gets a big thumbs-up from my daughter. The rhymes are well-known ones and the illustrations by Susanna Lockheart are beautiful. But what my child really likes are the ingenious pictures that magically move and change when the pages are lifted and turned.