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Title: The Inner City Mother Goose by David Diaz, Eve Merriam ISBN: 0-689-80677-9 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 Format: School & Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: A review from a African American parent's prospective
Comment: Maybe the thing about this books that offends me the most is that all the pictures are depicted as African Americans. I notice in the review that they said the book is geared toward young adults. I have the book in hand and it distinctly says 'An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division'. Even so, I myself find this book to be inappropriate for young minds. I personally feel that it has no place in a public library where it will be accessible to influence our youth's minds. I also don't believe that the reviews would be quite so good if all the pictures in the book were of Caucasian men. However I do realize that this is only my opinion and Carolyn Phelan is as always entitled to her opinion. I just believe as an African American parent that we as a race should block this book from our youths.
Yes the Mother Goose tales are a little gruesome, but come on now..there's a big difference between cutting off a mouse's tail and just for fun...plunge the knife and cut and run. Do we really want young impressionable minds reading this kind of (for use of a better word) crap?. Some of the poems are in keeping with the Mother Goose theme, but too many are way over the top with the violence. Take it from me, you do not want your child reading this book. It is banned in my household.
Rating: 5
Summary: What if Mother Goose lived in the ghetto?
Comment: I first heard Eve Merriam's "The Inner City Mother Goose" in 1971, when it was part of the Oral Interpretation performed by Richard Quezada that won the New Mexico State Speech contest. Rick had a wonderful deep voice, the sort that radio DJs would die for, and he made these poems really come alive. Today people get all excited by politically correct fairy tales, but for our generation it was Merriam turning nursery rhymes on their head to reflect the realities of the urban ghetto that were a sign of the times. These are not parodies, but telling satires that take beloved nursery rhymes as their point of departure. Most of the time her starting points are perfectly clear, as with "Simple Simon, "Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick," and "If." Besides, not all of her reference points are nursery rhymes, because you will also see the echoes of Christmas carols (e.g., "Twelve Rooftops Leaping"). Other poems simply are in the general style of children's rhymes, albeit with more serious intent (but then remember, "Ring Around the Rosie" was about the Black Death).
The language of some of these poems was shocking back in 1969, but, of course, today these words would not cause a ripple on a rap album. However, what is important is that here we are decades later and do any of us doubt that the world of which this poems speak still exists? This volume contains the text of the 1982 expanded edition, with a new introduction by poet Nikki Giovanni, and ten full-color paintings by David Diaz. Final Note: You know, the "real" Mother Goose (Elizabeth Vergoose) is buried in Boston's Old Granary Burial Ground, along with the victims of the Boston Massacre, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere. Given her final resting place is amongst the patriots of the American Revolution, no, I do not believe she is spinning in her grave over Merriam's poems.
Rating: 5
Summary: Inner City Mother Goose
Comment: I enjoyed and recommend this book because Merriam writes from the point of veiw of a person living in the situation, not of one looking down on it. She portrayed things the way they were then, and sadly, the way they are now.
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Title: House That Crack Built by Clark Taylor, Jan Thompson Dicks ISBN: 0811801233 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: July, 1992 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Elephant in the Living Room: The Children's Book by Jill M. Hastings, Marian H. Typpo, Marion H. Typpo ISBN: 1568380356 Publisher: Hazelden Information Education Pub. Date: June, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park ISBN: 0679882030 Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Parrot in the Oven : mi vida by Victor Martinez, Steve Scott ISBN: 0064471861 Publisher: RAYO Pub. Date: 31 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New Generation by Marc Kelly Smith, Billy Collins, Mark Eleveld ISBN: 1402200374 Publisher: Sourcebooks Trade Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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