WAS IT A GOOD TRADE?
by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers & illustrated by Irene Haas
Like Adoff’s newly recast Black Is Brown Is Tan (p. 404), this pairs a text published decades ago (1957) with new art from the original illustrator. In a series of trades, a rotund little man in a gingham suit swaps his knife for a wife, her cake for a rake, and so on, generally getting the better of each transaction, until at last he presents his wife with a whale. Being a commonsensical sort, she trades in the whale—for a knife. The verses are gathered at the end, with music adapted from a folk tune. Haas doesn’t stray far from her original compositions; her figures are redrawn and freshly colored, but they still dance in sequential vignettes across oblong white spreads as in the first edition. Young readers who find Old Mother Hubbard hilarious will giggle over this similar-sounding nonsense rhyme. (Picture book. 6-8)