Will You Be Mine?

PreS-K—Tildes has compiled and illustrated 18 traditional nursery rhymes that trace an 18-century courtship to honeymoon of a farmer tabby cat and his long-lashed poodle love. The pastoral scenes of preparation for the nuptials include mice tailors, a piggy florist, and a hedgehog minister. Gouache paintings in pastel colors accompany favorites like "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" and less-familiar poems such as "Pretty John Watts." The pictures have an abundance of adorable baby ducks and females in bonnets. There are two rhymes that seem tacked on as the last spread shows a visit with the Queen in London, and the story wraps up with a crow reading to a trio of mice children, "There was an old crow/Sat upon a clod;/That's the end of my song—/That's odd." Overall, though, this picture book offers nursery rhymes in a fresh way.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA