I Saw Esau by Iona Opie

I Saw Esau by Iona Opie

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I Saw Esau by Iona Opie

"The mood is insouciant glee. A treasure." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

That's what children chant when they are being teased; it's what their parents chanted, and their grandparents and their great-grandparents before them. Collected in this invaluable book are the wit and wisdom of generations of schoolchildren -- more than one hundred and seventy rhymes ranging from insults and riddles to tongue twisters, jeers, and jump-rope rhymes. With Iona Opie's introduction and detailed notes and Maurice Sendak's remarkable pictures -- vignettes, sequences, and full-page paintings both wickedly funny and comically sad -- here is a book that deserves a place among the classic texts of childhood.
Iona Opie has dedicated her life to collecting and preserving children's rhymes as an art form. I suppose my message in life is 'Nursery rhymes are good for you.' And the sooner you start, the better. I always have one myself every morning. I just open a nursery rhyme book at random. This morning I read:
Taffy was born on a
moonshiney night.

His head in a pipskin,
his heels upright.

You see, if you acquire a nursery rhyme-ical attitude, you're not at all put out by life's little bumps and bruises--they just seem funny and entirely normal.


Rosemary Wells says, We live in a time when our language is shrinking. Mother Goose, which represents our language at its most innocent, playful, and profound, is in danger of disappearing completely. Rhymes that have been repeated and refined for forty generations are no longer being taught to children. It is a great honor to work with Iona Opie with the hope of preserving these rhymes for many generations more. Rosemary wells lives in New York.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780763664015
ISBN 10 0763664014
Title I Saw Esau
Author Iona Opie
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Candlewick Press,U.S.
Year published 2012-11-13
Number of pages 160
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.