My abc of Nursery Rhymes (Funtime/Fun Time Library, 1975, Award, illus. not attributed, likely Arthur Ranson)
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| My abc of Nursery Rhymes © Award Publications Limited 1975, reprinted 1984 ISBN 0 86163 040 8 Photo: My collection (1984 reprint) |
This vintage collection of nursery rhymes was published by Award Publications in 1984 as one of the Funtime (aka Fun Time) Library series. For a list of the other books in the series (and links to my reviews), see Funtime/Fun Time Library Series.
Editor, illustrator, and publication information
There is no editor or illustrator attributed for this collection of nursery rhymes. The illustrations are sometimes mistakenly linked to Rene Cloke in online records, likely only because Rene Cloke illustrated other books in the series, as these illustrations are not at all Cloke's style.
Some online sellers attribute them to Jack Kent, but I can't see a version of the book where that is ever noted. Although it does seem to match his style, I think the illustrator is actually Arthur Ranson, as he is attributed by Award for illustrating another book in this series (My Big Book of Nursery Tales) and the style is the same. Arthur Ranson is an English artist better known as a comic book illustrator. See Arthur Ranson (Wikipedia).
There is a later Derrydale edition (which appears to be identical to the Award Funtime version in every way) (ISBN 0517292629).
The collection
Like the other books of the Funtime Library series, My abc of Nursery Rhymes is an oversize rectangular book measuring approximately 33 cm high by 23 cm wide.
It is a lovely blue, with the front cover featuring a parade of characters from inside the book, and the back cover choosing to centre an image of the 'O' from inside the book:
The book has bright yellow endpapers and is 16 pages long (unpaginated), excluding the front loose endpaper (offering a simple bookplate of a few lines beneath "This Book Belongs To" and publication information) and an end loose endpaper (advertising the Fun Time Library series). There is no title page – the collection begins directly after the front loose endpaper.
The collection contains 47 nursery rhymes arranged in alphabetical order by their first lines. It has no contents page or index of first lines so I've compiled one below (see end of post).
Each section features one or two rhymes, and each section is distinguished by a letter decorated with an animal or object (i.e. cartoonish illuminated letters).
The rhymes
There were rhymes here I hadn't come across before, possibly because the editor had to go in search for some quite obscure rhymes to find enough with first lines that match the alphabet.
The most unusual were "Kitty the spinner", "Nixie, dixie, hickory bow", "Old Toby Sizer", "Young Roger came tapping at Dolly's window", "Vanity Fair is over the hill" and "Zebras are striped horses". The latter seems to have been created for this collection as it is modern (referencing cars and zebra crossings) and I can find no record of it anywhere else online. I could also find no other record of the Vanity Fair rhyme, which seems to be older in form, but could also be a creation for this collection:
The illustrations
Cartoonish illustrations are not generally my favourites, so I didn't expect to enjoy this nursery rhyme collection as much as I did, but the illustrator had surprising and amusing interpretations of some of the rhymes, including:
- a sneaky look on the Knave of Hearts face as he prepares to eat some tarts
- a baby in their cradle sitting up sucking a dummy and looking at birds in the tree
- the three men in a tub squeezed in extremely tightly
- a petrified expression on the king's face as he's surrounded by blackbirds when he cuts open his pie
- the extremely long walking stick of young Roger
- the snooty girls of "What are little girls made of"
- the brown man of Hickory Dickory Dare ready with a rifle
- Jack Sprat kissing his wife
- the boy who had a little nut tree with gardening tools in his pocket
- the mouse of Hickory Dickory Dock dressed for a running race.
One particularly unusual illustration was for Little Boy Blue. Usually the boy who's under the haystack fast asleep is interpreted as Little Boy Blue himself, but in this illustration it appears that Little Boy Blue is coming to the rescue with his horn after a quite different boy has fallen asleep on the job.
Another highly unusual illustration was for "See Saw Margery Daw". We invariably see an illustration of children on a seesaw accompanying that rhyme, but in this collection we instead see Johnny working hard at the housework with no see-saw in sight:
Summary
This is a fun collection of nursery rhymes that seems to have a reasonable number of copies about, particularly if we include the Derrydale version. It seems to be long out of print though and ready to fade into obscurity, a situation not helped by the confusion around who illustrated the collection.
My abc of Nursery Rhymes – Contents
- A, B, C, Tumble Down D
- As I Was Going to St. Ives
- Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
- Bye, Baby Bunting
- Curly-Locks
- Cock-a-Doodle-Doo
- Dickory, Dickory, Dare
- Ding, Dong, Bell
- Early to Bed
- For Want of a Nail
- Georgie Porgie
- Goosey, Goosey, Gander
- Humpty Dumpty
- Hickory, Dickory, Dock
- Hark, Hark!
- I Had a Little Nut Tree
- Jack and Jill
- Jack Sprat
- Kitty the Spinner
- Little Boy Blue
- Little Jack Horner
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Mary, Mary, quite contrary
- Nixie, Dixie, hickory bow
- Old Mother Hubbard
- Old Toby Sizer
- Over the water and over the sea
- Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat
- Pat-a-Cake
- The Queen of Hearts
- Ride a Cock Horse
- Rock-a-Bye Baby
- Rub a Dub Dub
- Sing a Song of Sixpence
- See-Saw, Margery Daw
- Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
- There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
- Upon Paul's Steeple
- Upon a Cock Horse
- Vanity Fair
- Wee Willie Winkie
- What Are Little Boys Made Of?
- X Shall Stand For Playmates Ten
- Yankee Doodle
- Young Roger
- Zebras Are Striped Horses