cover image Mother Goose & More: Classic Rhymes with Added Lines

Mother Goose & More: Classic Rhymes with Added Lines

Dr Hickey, Hickey. Additions Press, $7.77 (45pp) ISBN 978-0-9623940-0-3

Mother Hubbard's dog gets fed, Humpty Dumpty is repaired and Little Boy Blue's sheep are led safely home. No, these are not scenes from The Twilight Zone , but instead are intriguing addenda to the canon of that celebrated matriarch, Mother Goose. Obstetrician Hickey has seen fit to explicate these verses, providing happy endings and/or expanding upon unresolved ``plots.'' Thus the Lady Bug's children do not perish: ``They've all flown away / Except little Ann, / For she's crept under / The frying pan.'' The dutiful mother returns to her brood and, in a reassuring conclusion, a new home is built (one hopes with a smoke detector). Though this book may seem heretical at first glance, there are surely youngsters--and parents--who really care about the fates of these beloved characters. The energetic tone is carefully preserved, and additions are printed in a different color than the originals. Moss's humorous, zestful pictures have an appropriately old-fashioned air. Though Ms. Goose might cavil, this slightly subverted picture book offers imaginative reunions with some dear old friends. Ages 2-6. (May)