Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children

This collection of Mother Goose parodies by Wheeler (Ugly Pie) and Blackall (Pecan Pie Baby) is as elegant as it is, like Mary, "quite contrary." The no-nonsense Spinster Goose oversees a reform school: "Not painted up pretty,/ it's mottled and gray./ The grounds are a nightmare./ (She likes it that way)." Blackall's pallid vignettes balance chilly poise and mordant humor. In one spread, a line of truculent children/animal hybrids slouch beneath Spinster Goose's gaze, one with a cigarette smoking behind her back. In "The Dirty Kid," medical-style spots provide closeups of the lice in bath-averse Polly Flinders's hair and the toejam between her toes. Wheeler adds some intellectual depth to the original nursery rhymes while grossifying them. Little Miss Muffet chews chalk, while a familiar Mary is recast as an unrepentant fibber ("Mary had a little lamb./ She said it was a horse./ But anyone with eyes could see/ it was a lamb, of course"). Though some may shrink from its clever ghastliness, kids with twisted senses of humor will feel right at home. Ages 5–up. (Mar.)