The Best Rhyming Children's Books
Let Babble take you on a tour/ of books both classic and obscure.
by Paul Barman
September 30, 2008
Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough, 2003
Jez Alborough has one of the catchiest flows in kid-dom. If you like this one, check out his addictive Duck in a Truck series.
All dogs walk and jump and run,
but dogs don't fly - it can't be done.
"But I did," said Sid. "I did."
On Beyond Zebra! by Dr. Seuss, 1955
The audacity to create new letters for the English alphabet puts this selection ahead of Seuss's famousest titles.
I said, "You can stop, if you want, with the Z
because most people stop with the Z. But not me!
I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends.
My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!"
Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin by Lloyd Moss, 1995
This book simultaneously teaches instruments and personnel line-ups, from solo to nonette.
FLUTE, that sends our soul a-shiver;
FLUTE, that slender, silver sliver.
A place among the set it picks
To make a young SEXTET — that's SIX.
Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino, 1989
Most masterpieces are made by masters, but both Zin Zin Zin and Is Your Mama a Llama? are one-offs — the only picture books written by the authors.
"Is your mama a llama?" I asked my friend Dave.
"No she is not," is the answer Dave gave.
"She hangs by her feet and she lives in a cave.
I do not believe that's how llamas behave."
"Oh," I said, "You are right about that.
I think your mama sounds more like a..."
Baby Beluga by Raffi, 1990
A beautiful board book illustrating the lyrics to the first song my son learned outside of the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" somnoverse.
Baby beluga in the deep blue sea.
Swim so wild and swim so free.
Heaven above and the sea below
and a little white whale on the go.
The Charles Addams Mother Goose by Charles Addams, 1967
You already know the nursery rhymes, but trust me: you need this book. Once an expensive collectable, it was reprinted to showcase his take on a stoned sidesaddle Mother Goose riding an irritated goose... the giant spider about to bogart Miss Muffet's tuffet picnic… the lizard that hatches out broken Humpty Dumpty…
Frederick by Leo Lionni, 1967
Mostly prose, Frederick — a picture book expressing the value of poetry itself — rhymes only at the end.
. . . And as Frederick spoke of the sun
the four little mice
began to feel warmer.
Was it Frederick 's voice?
Was it magic? . . .
And when he told them
of the blue periwinkles,
the red poppies in the yellow what,
and the green leaves
of the berry bush,
they saw the colors as clearly
as if they had been painted
in their minds.
©2008 Babble
About the Author
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Paul Barman is a lyricist, game designer and 'fauthor' of two.
Based in NYC, he writes for print, web, music and film.
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