Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles Book

The 1946 Caldecott winner is a really lovely book. On first glance it might seem too "old-fashioned" for today's readers but I think it still has a lot to offer. In fact, I was completely surprised to find that my one-year-old son was really drawn to the illustrations. He loves pictures with animals and nature. He even pointed at the trees in the illustrations and then at the trees outside, which he had never done before. I love the illustrations! It is interesting to hear some new verses, and to hear different takes on ones I had grown up hearing (for example, the Mary Had a Little Lamb! I'd never heard it with the black wool version.) The children in the illustrations are all so expressive and perhaps it is their faces that make these so timeless even though the settings and clothing are so different from ours today. A few verses might not be good for sensitive readers, and I know some of this is not quite "PC" these days (for example, in one verse a gun is shot and five rabbits go running off in fright) so I deduct a star for that but I still think that, on the whole, it is a valuable collection of American rhymes and jingles with absolutely gorgeous artwork.