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Summary
Summary
The poem about Mary and her little lamb is one of the most popular rhymes in America, but did you know that the rhyme is true? There once was a little girl named Mary who saved the life of a tiny lamb. The two became best friends, and that little lamb followed Mary everywhere--even to school, where the poet John Roulstone visited and immortalized the two in verse.
With his trademark folk art style, Will Moses paints the true story behind the famous nursery rhyme and shows how Mary went from being a small-town Massachusetts girl to an American folk hero.
Author Notes
Painting is as much a part of the Moses family tradition as the family homestead in Eagle Bridge, New York. There Will Moses has painted since he was a little boy, learning firsthand from his grandfather, folk artist Forrest Moses, who learned from his mother, Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as Grandma Moses. Developing his own folk style, Will has become an internationally beloved artist in his own right, his art displayed in collections throughout the world, including that of the White House.
His first picture book, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , a retelling of Washington Irving's famous tale, was published by Philomel in 1995.
Will Moses' studio is at the Mount Nebo Gallery and Farm in Eagle Bridge, where he lives with his wife, Sharon, and their three children.
Painting is as much a part of the Moses family tradition as the family homestead in Eagle Bridge, New York. There Will Moses has painted since he was a little boy, learning firsthand from his grandfather, folk artist Forrest Moses, who learned from his mother, Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as Grandma Moses. Developing his own folk style, Will has become an internationally beloved artist in his own right, his art displayed in collections throughout the world, including that of the White House.
His first picture book, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , a retelling of Washington Irving's famous tale, was published by Philomel in 1995.
Will Moses' studio is at the Mount Nebo Gallery and Farm in Eagle Bridge, where he lives with his wife, Sharon, and their three children.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Readers will probably be surprised to learn that the familiar nursery rhyme is actually based on a pamphlet written by Mary Elizabeth Sawyer, a farm girl who loved animals, especially sheep. When its mother rejected a frail lamb twin, Mary raised it herself, and the lamb became a beloved pet that followed her everywhere-once even to school. John Roulstone, a visitor at school that day, wrote a verse about the incident and gave it to Mary. End matter provides musical notation and additional information about Sawyer, who was born in 1806 and attended the Redstone Schoolhouse in Sudbury, MA; Sarah Josepha Hale, who published the poem with added verses; and Lowell Mason, who composed music for it. Moses's rich oil paintings, rendered in his characteristic folk-art style, beautifully depict rural 19th-century life. They include spreads, framed pictures with images of books and hens in the margins, and vignettes accompanying the lengthy text. Mary's large farmhouse kitchen has a spinning wheel, a pump at the sink, and pots simmering in the hearth. Animals romp in the fields, and in the distance, horses and carriages ride along a dirt road past the church and other low-lying buildings. Desks attached to benches line Mary's schoolroom where children write on slates and draw humorous pictures on the blackboard in the teacher's absence. Moses's Mother Goose (Philomel, 2003) would be a perfect accompaniment to this interesting story.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Moses (Raspberries!) proves that going behind the music needn't uncover sex, drugs, or nervous breakdowns. He introduces readers to the real Mary of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," a 19th-century Massachusetts farm girl named Mary Elizabeth Sawyer who nurses a newborn lamb back to health and wins its woolly, unwavering loyalty. The lamb did indeed follow Mary into school-"bold and proud, just as if she had always belonged there"-on the same day that a visitor named John Roulstone was in attendance. In his era's version of a tweet, Roulstone penned a pithy verse about the incident that proved tailor-made for repetition, embellishment, and musical adaptation (an afterword explains how the poem went viral, so to speak). Moses's spot art can feel a little wooden, but his talent opens up in the full pages and spreads, where his doll-like characters, flattened perspectives, and expansively detailed settings show that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree (his great-grandmother is Grandma Moses). Even children too young to be nostalgic for nursery rhymes will enjoy this pop culture lesson wrapped up as a trip back in time. Ages 1-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
(Picture book. 5-9)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
