Tasha Tudor’s illustrated Mother Goose is gentle and adorable. The children she illustrates are all rather cherubic. At the same time, there was a dated feel to her collection of nursery rhymes. That may be because some of her rhymes are unfamiliar, but the pictures were not as bright and engaging as other collections. In fact, every other page is a black and white illustration.

That wouldn’t be a problem in and of itself, but the illustrations and the layout is rather boring overall. In the end, it’s not a favorite book for me to read, although the illustrations are well done and probably deserving of the Caldecott honor it was given in 1944.