Mother Goose Eggs, Sunnyside Up

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

The premise of this unusual book is that many of the original Mother
Goose rhymes are filled with violent characters, and if these characters
were real, how would they look when they retired? Jim Westergard’s
woodcut illustrations visualize the retired character(s), and he has
placed these portraits and an explanatory description opposite the
original verses he selected from Mother Goose. For example, the first
verse of “Three Blind Mice” is given, along with a close-up of a
person presumably aghast at the sight of them running after the
Farmer’s Wife who cut off their tails. Opposite this verse is a
picture (also chosen for the cover) of the retired wife, whose face is
partly hidden by a hat and who is clutching a scary-looking carving
knife in her gnarled hand. The explanatory description reads: “Mother
Goose saw her as a rough gal who enjoyed mutilating handicapped rodents,
versus a wimp screaming from a chair.”

Great attention has been taken with the production of the book. It is
printed on wonderful cream paper stock, with a special type font and
decorated initial letters, as well as carefully laid-out pages. The
original wood engravings are well-executed portraits.

However, while some adults may appreciate the bizarre dark humour, this
is not a book to share with children. Not recommended.