Petra Mathers’ new book, The McElderry Book of Mother Goose (Simon & Schuster, 96 pages, $21.99.) is just out and the critics are falling all over themselves with enthusiasm.  HOORAY!

The New York Times calls the book “remarkable.”  The Wall Street Journal says it’s “riveting and visually airy.”  Publisher’s Weekly says Petra’s watercolor illustrations are done “with humor and emotional sensitivity.”   And on and on they go!

The book was a long time in the making, partly because Petra was, as always, painstaking in her research.  She found dozens of long-forgotten or purposefully neglected nursery rhymes, many of which she included alongside the more familiar and benign verses.  There is no doubt that children will love them all – the old favorites and the less known, deliciously shivery ones, too.  Happily, the critics understand that.

As Pamela Paul of the NYT writes at the conclusion of her review: In assembling the collection, Mathers, whose “Lottie’s New Friend” was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book in 1999, writes that she was surprised by how many wonderful rhymes, some scary or sad, had been excised from recent collections, aimed as they are at the very young. As this remarkable book shows, it’s time to let the big kids back in on the fun. Grown-ups will surely appreciate it, too.

The rhyme that almost every reviewer includes is “I Do Not Like Thee, Doctor Fell.” It goes like this: “I do not like thee, Doctor Fell; / The reason why, I cannot tell; / But this I know, and know full well, / I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.”  Petra has illustrated it, not with a sulky child but rather with a resentful-looking dog, his paw bandaged and his head encased in a humiliating cone-like Elizabethan collar that Dr. Fell, the vet, has made him wear.

I can’t wait to see if my local bookstore has the book yet.  I want to get a copy for myself and then determine how many I should lay in for Christmas presents.  For once, I know the very best gift to give everyone on my list!

Oh, and in case you are wondering about the “McElderry” in the title…  Margaret McElderry is considered the grande dame of children’s publishing and ‘Margaret McElderry Books’ was the first children’s imprint named for an editor.  McElderry died in February this year at age 98 and Petra’s is the first title in the McElderry Books series since the legendary editor’s death.  The three previous books in the series include compilations of Greek myths, Aesop’s fables, and Grimm’s fairy tales.