SuitabookOther Goose
Barbara Wyn Klunder
- Reading
- Read a few rhymes at a time, first recalling the original versions where needed. Pause over unfamiliar references, invite questions, and let the reader decide whether each joke feels clear, funny or troubling.
- Themes
- Environmental responsibility: Several nursery-rhyme revisions place familiar characters or images alongside polluted water, oil slicks, fuel and environmental damage. The book uses pointed humour to draw attention to environmental harm and a culture of over-consumption, presenting these concerns as matters needing attention.
- Social fairness and resources: Old Mother Hubbard’s empty cupboard leads to a food-bank visit, while other revisions connect everyday rhymes with practical social pressures. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Understanding inherited cultural forms: The book reshapes familiar nursery rhymes, sometimes replacing their original logic with contemporary references and satirical reversals. Its main method is to make readers compare the familiar wording with the altered version, although some meanings may only emerge through conversation.
- Worth knowing
- Some jokes depend on knowing the original nursery rhymes or understanding references such as second-hand smoke, urban pollution, oil on wildlife and cloning. One child found several lines confusing or hard to interpret.