The Real Dada Mother Goose

The Real Dada Mother Goose is an odd anthology inspired by the original Mother Goose collection. The author focuses on six of the most popular poems in unique and inventive ways. After introducing the original text, author Jon Scieszka breaks away from normal standards and explores different languages and formats. This book includes morse code, a comic strip, a mad lib, a secret code, a crossword puzzle, a joke, a haiku, an anagram, and even more ridiculous styles. The illustrations by Julia Rothman create a classical art style with an eclectic, modern twist. Her artwork evolves from classic to creative as these familiar favorites are transformed into whimsical images.

Due to the obscure nature of this book, this is not the type of text you can pick up and read to a child; instead, it is meant for older readers, ages eight to ten explore on their own. The author classifies this as a “treasury of complete nonsense,” and I believe there is no better way to describe this anthology.