Nursery Rhymes collections fascinate me. I am not sure whether it is because I am a foreigner and they have that quirky Britishness about them, but I love them. I have a small collection of nursery rhyme books to which I add to every so often (it’s not alway easy to justify to the other half why I need yet another copy of Mother Goose!). This collecting started a few years ago (I’m talking 1998), during a visit to Peter’s Bookselling Services in Birmingham. I had gone there on book-buying trip for school and was looking through all the shelves, looking for things for me as well (well, I was going to make the most of it!)  and I came across a little thin book, really unusual looking, and this little book is to blame for all the book-buying that ensued. This was it:

Vernon Grant’s Mother Goose(Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)
It is the beautiful vintage style which caught my eye at the time. But that’s hardly surprising as Grant was a prolific American illustrator, best known for illustrating adverts and magazines in the 1930s. He is particularly famous for having created Snap, Crackle and Pop for Kellog’s.
This little book gathers quite a few rhymes, some of them I did not know, and each is accompanied by an illustration.
I have to admit, this is not really a Mother Goose book for children, at least not young children. But if you are a fan of illustrations, especially with great American vintage feel, this is definitely for you!
Here are a few of my favourite illustrations:

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