May 1 – National Mother Goose Day

Happy Mother Goose Day!

Isn’t it fitting that the first day of May celebrate the Mother of Nursery Rhymes? I am so excited to share this day with you!

Mother Goose, although she is depicted as an old woman riding a flying goose, is actually a character created by a man. Charles Perrault, a French author, published a collection of fairy tales in 1695. These were the first authenticated Mother Goose stories. Later, in 1729, an English version of Perrault’s stories were published by Robert Samber in a book called Histories or Tales of Past Times, Told by Mother Goose. These stories included Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, and Cinderella.  The Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes that we associate as Mother Goose today were not stories, but poems published in 1781 under the title Mother Goose’s Melody. Today we can pick up any number of Mother Goose collections in illustrated books by various authors and illustrators. Here are a few to choose from.