2 h 43 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A cat plays a fiddle, a cow leaps over the moon, and a few short lines stay with you.
In The Nursery Rhyme Book, Andrew Lang gathers old verses passed from mother to child, nurse to baby, and playground to playground. These are poems for saying aloud: lullabies, counting games, riddles, and nonsense. Their authors are mostly unknown, but their sounds and rhythms give them a lasting place in memory.
Little Miss Muffet sits with her curds and whey until a spider arrives. A boy and a girl climb a hill, and an old woman faces a bare cupboard. Alongside these small stories come rhymes for rocking, bouncing, tickling, and clapping. Each takes only a few lines to bring a character, a game, or a strange little world to life.
What you’ll discover
- Lullabies and playful rhythms Find verses shaped for rocking a child, clapping hands, and sharing the pleasure of sound.
- Small figures, whole stories Meet Little Miss Muffet and other characters whose troubles unfold in just a few lines.
- Nonsense without limits Follow a laughing dog, a musical cat, and a dish running away with a spoon.
- Words that stay Discover short verses whose sound and rhythm make them easy to learn by heart.
- Tradition passed aloud Explore rhymes carried between generations, gathered by Lang rather than written by him.
Who will love it
For parents, grandparents and teachers who want a reliable stock of rhymes to say aloud, and anyone curious about where these verses come from. For readers who love lullabies, counting games, riddles and happy nonsense.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A storyteller gathers the nursery's oldest verses
- Lullabies and play rhymes come first
- Small characters carry whole stories
- Nonsense is where the fun lives
- Sound and rhythm make the rhymes stick
- Behind the play, a few serious things
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- Audiobook
- 2 h 43 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Das Buch der Kinderreime
A cat and a fiddle, counting games and lullabies reveal how beat and sound make nursery rhymes stay in memory.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A storyteller gathers the nursery's oldest verses
Andrew Lang spent much of his life collecting what ordinary people had told and sung for centuries. He wrote about folklore, myth and customs, and he retold fairy stories for children in a long series of books named for colors. A book of nursery rhymes fits that work well. Rhymes, like fairy tales, belong to everyone and to no single author.
That matters for how you read the collection. Many nursery rhymes have no known writer. They changed as they traveled, so one rhyme may exist in several versions, with a different word here or an extra line there. A collector like Lang had to choose which version to print. His choices helped fix the wording that many readers later knew as the right one.
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What is The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang about?
It is a collection of traditional nursery rhymes, including lullabies, counting rhymes, little stories and nonsense verse. Andrew Lang gathered the old verses into one volume for children and the adults who read to them.
Did Andrew Lang write the nursery rhymes himself?
No. Most of the rhymes are traditional, and many have no known authors. They were passed on by voice over many years. Lang collected and arranged them, and his book helped keep versions of them in print.
Who drew the pictures in The Nursery Rhyme Book?
The pictures were drawn by L. Leslie Brooke, an English illustrator. His drawings of animals and small figures sit beside the verses, so the rhymes and pictures work together on each page.
The author
Andrew Lang
1844–1912 · Scottish poet and folklorist
Andrew Lang was a Scottish writer born in Selkirk in 1844. He lived in London and died in Banchory in 1912. He wrote poetry, novels, literary criticism, and works on folklore. He edited The Blue Fairy Book, published in 1889, and other fairy-book collections, including The Violet Fairy Book in 1901.
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