Wednesday, 2 September 2015

The importance of Nursery Rhymes



NZ illustrator Donovan Bixley
Pussycat Pussycat and more
Upstart Press 2015 $19.99pb 24pp
ISBN 978 1 9272 6228 3
Themes: Traditional nursery rhymes (cat themes)
I feel I know every picture, every nuance of this book off by heart as since it was sent to me three weeks ago (and I apologise I am only posting it now) it has travelled back and forth to the Waikanae Kindergarten. The children have pulled it out of my book bag each Tuesday morning and insisted that that is the book we begin with. It is a long time since I shared nursery rhymes with children and I had forgotten how magic they can be with their simplicity and yet their sense of huge story behind each one. And this is even before the illustrations are mentioned! Donovan Bixley’s pictures for these four rhymes (all with a cat hero) are charming. They are warm and friendly and funny and cover each page with images. They are very ‘touchable’.
I read an interesting article on the importance of nursery rhymes the other day – it was written a few years ago and I am not totally sure of its source but have a look as it does make some very valuable points.
Preschool up/ Age 3.5 up

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