Mother Goose Remembers
Cackle, cackle Mother Goose,Have you any feathers loose?Truly have I, pretty fellow,Half enough to fill a pillow.Here are quills, take one or twoAnd down to make a bed for you.For over three centuries, Mother Goose has delighted children with nonsense  rhymes, cautionary tales, and singsong verses. With the many renderings of  Mother Goose that have appeared over the years, it's hard to imagine a  strikingly original version. Yet withMother Goose Remembers, Clare  Beaton strides into entirely new territory. Selecting many of her own childhood  favorites, Beaton illustrates them with her hand-sewn designs, using antique  fabrics, felt, beads, braids, lace, buttons, and bric-a-brac. The result is a  truly charming treasury of poignantly old-fashioned portrayals of "The Queen of  Hearts," "To Market, to Market," "Polly Put the Kettle On," "Little Jack  Horner," and heaps more. The downy illustrations seem to leap out at the reader,  who will want to touch the paper just to be sure it's not actually made of  fabric and gewgaws. The title of each rhyme is sewn onto the soft-colored  background in big, loose stitches, evoking bygone days when a child's education  included embroidery and recitations. Onto each scene floats a single stitched  feather for young readers to discover, providing a fun challenge as they "fill"  a goose-down pillow for bedtime. (Ages 3 to 7)--Emilie Coulter