Nonsense Nursery Rhymes

Arranged as an A-Z, this picture alphabet book contains traditional nursery rhymes --- well give or take the odd one here and there --- in modern adaptations from a highly accomplished writer of poetry for children. Thus, we are treated to a bungee-jumping Humpty Dumpty and there are shades of Mr Twit in the highly hirsute Jack Sprat, while some rhymes depart even more radically from the originals. T, for example, offers, 'Twinkle twinkle little frog,/Shivering in your puddle,/Hop out of the soggy bog -/Come and have a cuddle.' The twenty-six rhymes are each given a full page with its own (almost always) hilarious, action-packed illustration. The final two pages comprise twenty-two alphabetically arranged traditional nursery rhymes --- prefaced by the following: 'Do you know any nursery rhymes that begin with A, V, X or Z? No? Well neither do we!' Tremendous fun for browsing and reading aloud, both to and by children from about four up once they know the originals.