Riddledy Piggledy

Tony Mitton is fast becoming one of the best-loved voices in children’s poetry today. The author lives in Cambridge, England.

Paddy Mounter was born in a small village in Somerset, England. He studied graphics at art college and spent 10 years working in advertising agencies and studios in London. He returned to Somerset, where he has lived ever since, and is now a full-time illustrator and writer of books for children.
From the Hardcover edition.

Kindergarten-Grade 3–In this collection, Mother Goose invites readers to guess traditional nursery rhymes from various clues. Right-hand pages feature a three- to six-line riddle with an illustration: "Some bread and honey/and an empty pie,/and a bunch of blackbirds/singing nearby." The rhyme in question appears in its entirety on the verso. The titles of the riddles give hints as well, as in "Tub Trio" for "Rub-a-Dub-Dub." Some of the common verses (such as "Jack and Jill") are an easy guess, but others (e.g., "Little Tommy Tucker") are more of a challenge. This book is not for the standard nursery-rhyme audience of preschoolers. The premise requires a strong familiarity with Mother Goose and a modicum of sophistication. For example, children have to know that blind people sometimes wear dark glasses to guess correctly from the clue for "Three Blind Mice." Mounter's quirky color cartoons also seem geared to an older audience. If children can move beyond the cover and the content, which may initially strike them as babyish, they should enjoy this guessing game, and readers may be inspired to create riddles of their own.–Rachel G. Payne, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
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