This is a very old but delightful collection of ballads rhymes and tunes--a treasure for anyone who enjoys a ballad. Robert Lawson's illustrations show that he truly deserved all of the awards that her received. ( )

An influential early twentieth-century children's book editor, Helen Dean Fish was the driving force behind the publication of the picture-book Animals of the Bible, which won its illustrator, Dorothy P. Lathrop, the very first Caldecott Medal back in 1938. That same year, another of Fish's projects, this collection of twenty-four nursery rhymes, illustrated by Robert Lawson, became the very first Caldecott Honor Book. Here, in Four and Twenty Blackbirds, we have some well-known selections, from Frog Went A-Courting to The Little Red Hen, but the majority of rhymes included are more obscure, hunted down by Fish from American contributors (although their origins are clearly European), and often recorded here (according to the foreword) for the very first time. Accompanying the rhymes are Lawson's engraving-style artwork, done in black and white, with green accents.

An engaging work, particularly for those with an interest in nursery rhymes and children's poetry, this collection contained a number of songs and poems previously unknown to me, although their themes were often familiar. Joe Dobson, for instance, in which a farmer and his wife (in the days of Robin Hood) switch tasks, with the farmer keeping house and his dame tending to the fields, put me strongly in mind of the Norwegian folktale concerning The Man Who Kept House. I haven't done a great deal of reading in this area - The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes sits on my shelf as I type this, just waiting to be picked up - so I couldn't say if these selections are any more grisly than their literary descendents, but they certainly are quite gruesome, in parts! The scene, in The Tragic Tale of Hooty the Owl, in which the fox has eaten his strigine adversary's offspring, is quite bloody. I confess to a certain sadness, that the foxes here are all depicted as villains. Ah well! The artwork is appealing, although I wouldn't classify it was outstanding. It reminded me of the illustrations I've seen in some vintage Aesop collections.

All in all, an interesting work, one I would recommend to readers with a taste for older children's nursery rhymes - particularly ones not as frequently heard today - as well as to fans of Robert Lawson. ( )

This is a book full of nursery rhymes. I would use this book for a poem writing lesson in class. There are many different types of nursery rhymes. I would ask the students to draw pictures of what they think is happening while I read the nursery rhymes. I would also ask them to write their own nursery rhyme after I read them a few examples. This would be a good book for first graders.