Sing a Song of Mother Goose (1987, Scholastic, illus. Barbara Reid)

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An old woman rides a flying goose, plasticine illustration for Sing a Song of Mother Goose by Barbara Reid, published by Scholastic in 1987.
Sing a Song of Mother Goose Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd Illustrations copyright 1987 Barbara Reid This edition copyright 1987 by Scholastic Canada Ltd Art Director: Kathryn Cole. Photography: Ian Crysler. ISBN 0590738380

Unless my copy of this book is missing some pages at the beginning (which is possible – it begins at page 3, which means pages 1-2 may account for the unnumbered title and copyright pages, or a leaf may be missing) there is no supplied table of contents. Each nursery rhyme has a title, however, and I've copied these into a contents list below (see end of post).
This vintage nursery rhyme collection seems to be well-known and well-loved, with 112 ratings (and an average 4.17 stars rating) on Goodreads (as at 1 August 2025). My edition (featured here) is the first edition 1987 printing. Sing a Song of Mother Goose was Barbara Reid's second book, and for its twentieth anniversary in 2007 Scholastic published what was described as "a whole new edition, completely reillustrated in a board book format." The twentieth anniversary edition was designed to be "instantly recognizable to the generation of kids who grew up with the original and now have little ones of their own." See Sing a Song of Mother Goose (Scholastic).
Not having grown up in Canada, I wasn't familiar with this 1987 nursery rhyme collection at all, and I read it for the first time as an adult. I'd come across fabric illustrations and posed puppets before, but plasticine illustrations were new for me. The Goodreads bio for Barbara Reid explains: "As a child, Barbara Reid loved reading, drawing, writing and fooling around with plasticine. She kept at it, and has written and illustrated 19 picture books, illustrating more than 25. Her books have been published in over a dozen countries, and her signature plasticine relief illustrations have won many awards..."

I enjoyed these plasticine masterpieces, and the big bold typeset of the rhymes. The cover illustration is framed with a white trellis archway, and each of the pages in the book is framed within upper and lower plasticine trellises that feature the illustrations for the rhymes. The plasticine people are not pretty, but the compositions of the illustrations are certainly fun. See the joie de vivre of 'The Dogs Do Bark' and the irreverence of the end of 'Solomon Grundy'.

Happy dogs racing with rags, along a white trellis fence, plasticine illustration for nursery rhyme The Dogs Do Bark, from Sing a Song of Mother Goose by Barbara Reid and published by Scholastic in 1987.
Plasticine illustration of 'The Dogs Do Bark'

I also particularly enjoyed the lively illustrations of 'Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid', the amusing figures of 'Monday's Child', and the enterprising mice rescue team in 'Rock-a-bye Baby'. I appreciated the originality in how the illustrations reimagined certain familiar nursery rhyme characters, too – namely, 'Jack Be Nimble' as a leaping frog, and 'Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee' as hard-shelled tortoises.
The rhymes were much as I knew them, with some minor variations: for 'Ladybird' I'm more familiar with Ann hiding under a 'frying' rather than a 'pudding' pan; for 'Sing a Song' with the blackbird having 'pecked' off the maid's nose rather than 'snipped' it off; for Little Bo-Peep's lambs to be 'wagging their tails behind them' rather than 'bring[ing] their tails behind them', and with 'Rock-a-bye Baby' being 'in the treetops' rather than 'on the treetop'.

A man falls ill, becomes an angel, then a gravestone. Plasticine illustration for nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy, from Sing a Song of Mother Goose, by Barbara Reid and published by Scholastic in 1987.
Plasticine illustration of 'Solomon Grundy'

A striking difference for me was in 'Pat-a-Cake' when the baker's man was enjoined to 'mark it with T' and 'put it in the over for Tommy and me', which I've never come across before, always having seen this as 'B' for 'Baby and me' . I was also surprised by the inclusion of 'One For the Money', which to me has only ever been the opening lines of Elvis Presley's groovin' 'Blue Suede Shoes'. As it transpires, Carl Perkins (the songwriter) was clearly borrowing those lyrics from this nursery rhyme, which has apparently been around since the 19th century and was traditionally used to start running races. See Mama Lisa's World.
The additional lines included in this collection for 'Little Boy Blue' ('Will you wake him? No, not I, For if I do, he's sure to cry') were familiar but are not commonly printed, I think, with most versions of the rhyme finishing with him under the haycock fast asleep. And I prefer 'Pins' without the last two lines included here – if we're going to indulge in superstition, good luck is better to imagine than bad.
At nearly 40 years old, this book is vintage, but with its popularity there appears to be no shortage of copies available. I'll be on the lookout for the reillustrated 20th anniversary board book, as it would be interesting to compare.

Sing a Song of Mother Goose – Contents

  • A Diller, A Dollar
  • Ladybird
  • Georgie Porgie
  • Thirty Days Hath September
  • The Dogs Do Bark
  • If
  • Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
  • Sing a Song
  • Jack a Nory
  • Jack Be Nimble
  • Hickory, Dickory, Dock
  • One for the Money
  • Jack and Jill
  • Little Boy Blue
  • Mary Had A Little Lamb
  • Little Tommy Tucker
  • Monday's Child
  • Old King Cole
  • Here Is The Church
  • Pat-a-Cake
  • Pease Porridge
  • Little Jack Horner
  • Old Mother Hubbard
  • Rain
  • Little Miss Muffet
  • Hey, Diddle, Diddle
  • Humpty Dumpty
  • Little Bo-Peep
  • Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat
  • Pins
  • Banbury Cross
  • Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
  • Solomon Grundy
  • Simple Simon
  • There Was An Old Woman
  • The Little Girl With A Curl
  • Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid
  • Rock-a-bye Baby
  • Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee
  • To Market, To Market

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