Hi Diddle Diddle: A Book of Mother Goose Rhymes (1966, Scholastic, illus. Nola Langner)

Hi Diddle Diddle: A Book of Mother Goose Rhymes
Pictures by Nola Langner
© 1966 by Scholastic Magazines Inc. Published by Scholastic Book Services,
a division of Scholastic Magazines Inc.
My edition featured here is the 5th printing, October 1971.

I was unfamiliar with the variant name of "Hi Diddle Diddle" used for this book title, and the rhyme on the back cover, so at first I wondered if this book was a creative reworking of original nursery rhymes, but it isn't – it illustrates a large number of familiar nursery rhymes. It is a thin paperback book that shows "TJ 822" on the front cover (top corner) and the spine, which was a book code Scholastic paperbooks – see vintage scholastics for more information. I was unable to locate an ISBN for the book.

Hi Diddle Diddle features a handy list of the rhymes it covers (although the rhyme from the back cover isn't listed there).

Hi Diddle Diddle – contents pages

'There was an old woman sat spinning' – rhyme from the back cover of the book 

(not listed in the contents)

I'd never come across the illustrator Nola Langner before, but it appears she was an American illustrator of some note – this Enyclopedia.com entry outlines her career and her key works. Hi Diddle Diddle doesn't get a mention, but the entry explains that Langner "was particularly known for her innovative use of muted washes in her artwork, rather than the more garish use of color commonly employed by children's book illustrators at the time."

We see that muted use of colour here. The collection is composed of simple black and white line drawings, with the rhymes set inside frames. The only colours in the books are pale pinks and blues, which appear as individual background colours to the line drawings, sometimes one pink page and one blue page alongside each other, but sometimes two blue or two pink.

The compositions made me laugh out loud several times – for the look on a fleeing cat's face in 'I Love Little Pussy', for a mischief-maker at school in 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', and others.

Mary's little lamb being rambunctious

The images I found sweetest were of the mice weaving coats for gentlemen in 'Six Little Mice', and the pretty maids growing out of the tops of flowers in "Mary, Mary, quite contrary". There were multiple images of angry children – those simple line drawings really show expressions well with a change in the angle of the eyebrows! This image of 'What are Little Boys Made Of' is a case in point.

Illustration for 'What are Little Boys Made Of?'

I liked the way the illustrations gave context or unexpected explanations to familiar rhymes – as with 'The King of France' (featured on the front cover), never going up that hill again, the blackbirds getting in everyone's faces after bursting out of the pie in "Sing a Song of Sixpence", and Little Jack Horner making quite a mess of his food. There is also a bit of fun as Humpty Dumpty leaps to a frying pan doom, and a pussycat is the only one who likes pease porridge nine days old.

I appreciated the way some of the double page spreads were thematically or linguistically linked – as with 'A Diller, a Dollar' and 'Early to Bed', giving us a lovely parallel structure with two beds and two windows. We see more of the same with parallel houses and stars for 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and 'Star Light, Star Bright', and other illustrated rhymes.

Connected illustrations for 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and 'Star Light, Star Bright'

The most disturbing images can be found on the double page spread featuring 'Jerry Hall' and 'Jack Sprat' – Jerry Hall because he isn't be found in the picture, only his left-behind clothes as a rat prepares to eat his hat, and Jack Sprat and wife because there is something creepy about their missing heads (hidden behind the framed rhyme)!

This is a fun and interesting nursery rhyme collection, which doesn't appear to be too rare – there are multiple copies available online at reasonable prices, waiting to be enjoyed.