The People of the Town: Nursery-Rhyme Friends for You and Me

Marks gathers 26 people-centric nursery rhymes, including well-known figures like Jack and Jill, Doctor Foster, and Little Bo-Peep. Expressive, slightly caricatured ink-and-watercolor illustrations match the old-fashioned air of the enduring rhymes, but Marks incorporates some fun details, too. The “grand old Duke of York” is a boy riding a rocking horse, Peter Piper is a jester balancing a pumpkin on his nose (one that looks to be home to Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater’s wife), and the modern-looking children on a city sidewalk seem almost aghast that nightgown-clad Wee Willie Winkie thinks that they ought to be in bed by eight o’clock. Ages 2–5. (June)