Other editions of book Mother Goose in Prose

"Mother Goose in Prose" is a collection of twenty-two children's stories based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It was the first children's book written by author L. Frank Baum, published in 1897. The author himself gives a great introduction to the book: "Many of these nursery rhymes are complete tales in themselves, telling their story tersely but completely; there are others which are but bare suggestions, leaving the imagination to weave in the details of the story. Perhaps therein may lie part of their charm, but however that may be, I have thought the children might like the stories told at greater length, that they may dwell the longer upon their favorite heroes and heroines. For that reason, I have written this book."

Sing a song o' sixpence, a handful of rye, Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie; When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Was not that a dainty dish to set before the King? "If you have never heard the legend of Gilligren and the king's pie, you will scarcely understand the above verse; so I will tell you the whole story…." Thus The Wonderful Wizard of Oz creator, L. Frank Baum, delights readers and listeners of all ages with his imaginative tales of the “real” stories behind the beloved nursery rhymes. Written in 1897, Mother Goose in Prose was the book that launched Baum’s career as a writer.

If ever a writer and an artist were an unbeatable team, it's on these pages. Put that team to work on the most famous characters in the English language and the result can be nothing less than classic. Here two giant imaginations take on Little Boy Blue, The Cat and the Fiddle, Old King Cole, Mistress Mary, Jack Horner, The Man in the Moon, Hickory, Dickory, Dock, Bo-Peep, Tommy Tucker, Humpty Dumpty, The Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Miss Muffet and others. To create Mother Goose in Prose, the man who gave us The Wonderful Wizard of Oz started with the bare bones of the celebrated nursery rhymes and embroidered them as only a master storyteller could. Now Mary Quite Contrary lives in a real house, has a mother and is visited in her garden by a Squire. Humpty Dumpty is far from just a five line verse here and, once read, his will never be just a five line story again. Did you ever wonder how the old woman's house got to resemble a shoe? In case the reader doesn't get the picture, Baum departs from his storytelling to draw it himself. This is a charming book, with a warm introduction by Baum, who takes care to trace the vague but fascinating history of the rhymes back to 1650, through the three countries that claim Mother Goose for their own. But "the songs that cluster around her name are what we love," he reminds us. "Many of these nursery rhymes," Baum says, "are complete tales in themselves.

The volume begins with an historical overview written by Baum himself, in which he notes that the first use of the name "Mother Goose" was by the great French author of fantasies, Charles Perrault -- the inventor of Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Puss in Boots. Each tale begins with the nursery rhyme, and then a tale that illustrates the rhyme follows -- told in Baum's charming, natural fashion. Mother Goose in Prose is a delight for children of all ages. The book's last selection features a girl named Dorothy who can talk to animals — an anticipation of the Oz books. When Baum later included this story in his Juvenile Speaker (1910) and The Snuggle Tales (1916–17), he changed the girl's name to Doris, to avoid confusing her with Dorothy Gale.

*This Book is annotated (it contains a detailed biography of the author). *An active Table of Contents has been added by the publisher for a better customer experience. *This book has been checked and corrected for spelling errors. Mother Goose in Prose is a collection of twenty-two children's stories based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It was the first children's book written by L. Frank Baum, and the first book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. It was originally published in 1897 by Way and Williams of Chicago, and re-released by the George M. Hill Company in 1901.