Mr & Mrs J. L. Stoddart at home Book

Er... no.

This isn't the first Mother Goose collection I've read, but it's probably the weakest one I've seen so far. It was published in 1881, so I'm not expecting it to be modern and unproblematic. However, I honestly don't know if much thought was put into the selection of rhymes included here. There are many I'd never heard before. Some are quite boring. Others are downright disturbing. There's elder abuse (an old man gets hurled down the stairs because he won't say his prayers), mutilation (something about two mothers discussing "chop-a-nose day"), and cruel attitudes toward the poor (the very first poem teaches children to fear the poor, and advocates using violence to drive them out of town).

I usually like Kate Greenaway's artwork, but I'm not a fan of it here. Whether the original drawings got mangled in the reproduction, or they were just weak to begin with, I'm not sure. But there are only a few pictures that I actually like.

Overall, this was a disappointment. For a much better book of Mother Goose rhymes (both for selection and aesthetic), check out Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose: One Hundred Best-Loved Verses by Mary Engelbreit.