Ring O' Roses: A Nursery Rhyme Picture Book

Here are the rhymes that have lulled generations to sleep and sent children skipping down lanes for centuries. Ring O' Roses collects the most beloved verses in the English-speaking world - from Humpty Dumpty's great fall to Little Miss Muffet's peculiar fright, from Jack and Jill tumbling hillward to Georgie Porgie's problematic kissing. These are the words that adults half-remember and children instantly know, the strange little stories that somehow feel both ancient and freshly discovered. The illustrations dance between color and monochrome, capturing the odd, gentle logic of verses where cats have curds and whey, where spiders fear rain, and where the man in the moon drinks too much. This is not a book to read once and shelve. It is a book to keep within arm's reach, to pull out at bedtime or in the car or when the afternoon stretches long. The rhymes demand to be spoken aloud, the pictures demand to be studied, and the whole improbable collection demands to be passed forward - because these are the verses that carry the childhood itself, tucked into the back of the mind like a secret that was never quite secret at all.