Sunday 29 June 2008

My Thoughts: Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, The Reason Behind the Rhyme, Chris Roberts



I'm really not much of a non-fiction reader, I always mean to read more but some how get caught up in fiction books and never make it on to something that is real. This book was brought years ago, back when I was a University, and more than likely brought because it had a cool cover.

The book features a huge mix of nursery rhymes, giving us the history of how the rhyme originated, or the various theories of where the rhyme originated as well as information about different versions of the rhyme in history and in other countries across the world.

I enjoyed the book for the most part, and as the book is written in short chapters -each chapter dedicated to a different rhyme I read it during the ad breaks while watching Big Brother (a reality show in England - not something I should admit to watching!). My only problem was one, that after a while the origins of the tales all merge into one and that my knowledge of history is shockingly poor. I know a little about the Romantic period and World War 1 and 2 and nothing else! I think if I could place the names of the Kings and Queens with the events he was talking about I would have got more from the book, even so I still got a lot from the book.

I loved the language, each nursery rhyme is discussed in a fairly chatty style, almost like you have an interesting mate down the pub talking to you about it. Also the drawings for each rhyme where fantastic, I could only find one example to illustrate but it's a good example.


If you have read this book or blogged about it leave a comment and I'll link your thoughts to the post.

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