17 Best Nursery Rhyme Books

Scott Gustafson illustrates forty-five Mother Goose rhymes with richly detailed paintings. Familiar verses and less common selections receive imaginative interpretations, with animal characters and playful scenes adding visual stories to the collection's nonsense, adventures, and lessons.

Folklorist Iona Opie selects more than sixty traditional Mother Goose rhymes, illustrated in watercolors by Rosemary Wells. This anniversary edition combines familiar verses with the pictures' playful details and includes Wells's reflections on the influence of nursery rhymes.

Jackie Morris illustrates a collection of traditional nursery rhymes with watercolor scenes. Familiar verses and less common selections share the book, inviting adults and children to explore the rhythm of the words alongside animals, landscapes, and imaginative visual details.

Michael Rosen gathers nursery rhymes from familiar traditions and older collections, illustrated by Chris Riddell. The selection mixes well-known verses with less familiar finds, pairing rhythmic language with playful pictures for adults and young children to share.

Axel Scheffler illustrates traditional nursery rhymes through a cast of animal characters. The collection joins familiar verses with lively scenes, offering short pieces for shared reading and pictures that children can explore beyond the words.

Jack Prelutsky selects more than two hundred poems by twentieth-century writers for young children. Marc Brown's illustrations accompany verses about everyday experiences, from waking in the morning to going to bed, in an anthology intended for reading aloud.

Raymond Briggs illustrates a substantial collection of traditional nursery rhymes, originally published as The Mother Goose Treasury. Well-known verses appear alongside less familiar selections, with detailed pictures adding characters, actions, and humor to the words.

Kady MacDonald Denton illustrates a collection of nursery rhymes and songs ranging from lullabies to schoolyard chants. Familiar favorites appear alongside verses from different cultures, with downloadable recordings accompanying the book's selection for children and adults to share.

Matthew Reinhart brings traditional Mother Goose rhymes to life through elaborate paper engineering. Six spreads combine large pop-up scenes with smaller books and additional moving constructions, creating an interactive way for children and families to explore familiar verses.

Allan Ahlberg's rhyming clues invite children to find familiar fairy-tale and nursery-rhyme characters hidden in Janet Ahlberg's illustrations. Tom Thumb, Bo-Peep, and other figures appear in connected scenes that turn each page into a game of I Spy.

Bonnie and Ben's favorite babysitter shares nursery rhymes at bedtime. The children enjoy them so much that they ask to hear each one again, turning the evening into a succession of familiar verses rather than a quick goodnight.

A busy mouse encounters different animals as a grandfather clock strikes the hours from afternoon onward. Keith Baker extends the familiar nursery rhyme with new verses and colorful illustrations, combining playful encounters with counting and an introduction to telling time.

Mary Engelbreit illustrates a collection of one hundred traditional Mother Goose rhymes. Familiar characters including Little Bo-Peep, Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, and Jack and Jill appear in colorful scenes accompanying verses for reading and reciting together.

This illustrated treasury gathers traditional nursery rhymes for reading aloud with children. Familiar verses such as Pop Goes the Weasel and Row, Row, Row Your Boat offer short selections for shared reading and bedtime routines.

Richard Scarry illustrates a collection of more than fifty traditional Mother Goose rhymes. Familiar verses about Old Mother Hubbard, the woman in the shoe, and other characters are accompanied by colorful pictures for children to explore while listening and reciting.

This collection gathers more than three hundred traditional nursery rhymes with color illustrations by Blanche Fisher Wright. Originally published in 1916, it brings together familiar Mother Goose verses and characters in a treasury for shared reading and recitation.

Tim Harrington expands the familiar toe-counting rhyme to ask what the piggies on the other foot are doing. Colorful illustrations introduce adventures involving dancing, painting, flying planes, and other activities, encouraging readers to wiggle and count along.