WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?

Witty remixed nursery rhymes give little girls power, purpose, and presence.

The original version of the nursery rhyme “Georgie Porgie” has not aged well. To kiss a girl and make her cry smacks of harassment. Author Willis gives the young White girl a voice, telling Georgie: “Don’t kiss me unless I say!” Many well-known nursery rhymes are here similarly reworked: Humpty Dumpty has a Black woman doctor; instead of wringing her hands over her lost sheep, Little Bo Peep (a pale-skinned girl with a long, brown braid) rescues them from a pit of slime. With laugh-out-loud humor, the equitable spin refocuses these traditional vignettes. Knowing the originals intensifies the impact but is not necessary. With a sophisticated color palette and clever visuals, Follath’s precise illustrations bolster the rewordings; readers will lose themselves in the detail and the content. Inherent in these poems is the kernel of truth that girls can choose to do or be anything. For that matter, boys can, too. Although this title keeps gender clearly binary, this diverse bunch of girls can choose to be fairy queens or crocodiles. The very last lines turn the spotlight on a dancing Black boy, capturing the essence of empowerment: “Ray is dancing a ballet—we play what we want to play!”

More relevant, possibly more entertaining, and certainly more appropriate than the originals.