Customer Reviews
I Never Tire of Reading This Book 
2008-04-04
Of all the books I received as baby gifts, this book has had the longest lifespan. It was my daughter's favorite book as soon as she was old enough to turn regular pages, and almost a year later, it still is. Unlike shorter board books which become very repetitive, this book still has poems that seem "fresh" to me. Everytime we read it's a different experience, depending how many pages we turn at a time. It can be a short book or a long book, depending on the day. The illustrations are incredibly detailed. Even after what seems like a thousand reads, I'm finding clever twists and recognizing characters from elsewhere in the book. This book is a classic and offers lots of bang for your buck.
Nice illustrations but the rhymes fall a little short 
2008-03-25
The illustrations for the rhymes are all of cats and other animals as stand in for humans and are very cute. As for the rhymes, there are not many of them and some are truncated.
Not quite what I'd imagined 2008-02-05
This is a very good book, but it's not quite what I'd imagined. Most of the rhymes were not familiar to me. The illustrations are beautiful, though, and it's fun to read. We enjoy it, but if I had seen it before buying, I probably wouldn't have bought it.
A family favorite! 2007-07-21
When my kids were small, I went into a "Mother Goose" kick. I bought and checked out from the Library every Mother Goose I could find, we read them all, and THIS was by far our favorite. The selection of poems was varied, with old favorites and new poems I'd never heard from my childhood as well. The illustrations are beautiful and very fun, Rosemary Wells knows just how kids minds work!
My very favorite Mother Goose book 2007-01-25
Publisher's Weekly called this book "exuberant" and that's exactly the right word for it. Bright primary colors make up this book, and Rosemary Wells' adorable characters populate the rhymes. Unlike some Mother Goose books, this one is meaty -- it boasts 108 pages, with a rhyme on almost every page. That's a lot of nights of Mother Goose at bedtime.
Nursery rhymes help build phonological awareness, an important pre-reading skill. Research has actually shown that children who memorize nursery rhymes go on to become better readers than those who do not.
This book makes a great baby gift, and a terrific birthday or holiday gift for a toddler or preschooler. It's the one I grab first when I recommend nursery rhymes to library visitors.
Most of the good mother goose rhymes but... 
2006-11-19
To a small child, words are magical. And the most magical of all are the beloved, venerable words of Mother Goose. Now folklorist Iona Opie has gathered more than sixty treasured rhymes in their most perfect, honest form. From "Hey Diddle, Diddle" and "Pat-a-Cake" to "Little Jack Horner" and "Pussycat, Pussycat," these are familiar verses that have been passed from parent to child for generations; these are the rhymes that are every child's birthright.
With watercolors by Rosemary Wells that may prove equally enduring, MY VERY FIRST MOTHER GOOSE captures the simple joy and the sly humor that are the essence of Mother Goose. Parents and children will find themselves exploring this volume together, savoring delightful details and funny surprises on every page. This is a book that promises hours of quiet smiles and merry grins for readers of all ages.
Mom's favorite "big" book 2006-10-23
Of the larger books I read to my daughter (now 7 months), I grab this one most often. Each rhyme has such unique illustrations that I spend extra time on each page pointing out the images to my daughter. Many of the characters are adorable. The book is long enough that we get through only a fraction of the book at each sitting, yet it's not so heavy as some larger books. Many of the nursery rhymes are unfamiliar to me, which also makes it interesting for me.
Enchants my 2-year-old every day, for 30-45 minutes 2006-03-16
My son first latched on to this Mother Goose collection at about 21 months, and for the last 3 months, we've read the whole thing through nearly every day. He'll spend 30 or 45 mintues with me, reading the rhymes, enjoying the songs (there are several for which the tunes are fairly well known), and looking forward to the ones such as "patty cake" which have a game attached to them. While he's got a pretty decent attention span for his age, this is by far the activity he'll do for the longest time. He's starting to learn the rhymes himself now, and it's become a very participatory activity to read it with him. I'm enjoying it tremendously, with the warm and fuzzy, family-celebrating illustrations, the inclusion of many of my childhood favorites, and some old rhymes which are new to me, and very charming (Wibbleton to Wobbleton, for example, and The Big Ship Sails on the Alley, Alley Oh). I've hidden the other Mother Goose collections we were given as gifts, because I find this by far the most appealing, in its choices of rhymes and songs, the charm of its illustrations, and its uncrowded layouts which don't squeeze too much text onto the pages.
non-smarmy, non-creepy illustrations 2006-03-09
Rosemary Wells's pictures are cute without being smarmy or excessively detailed. I find I don't get sick of the illustrations the way I do with other artists' renditions.
Perfect for the younger ones! 2005-11-08
My daughter is two and a half and loves this book! It is perfect for bed time reading because you can read a lot or a little of the book. The illustrations are beautiful and reminiscent to me of some of the books I loved as a kid.
