Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 31, 1994 TAG: 9401290120
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LINDA SHRIEVES ORLANDO SENTINEL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
And he's not the only one. In "The New Adventures of Mother Goose," (Meadowbrook Press, $15), the three blind mice of nursery rhyme are now the three kind mice. And Little Miss Muffett used to be scared of spiders, but no more. Now she's bossing them around.
Welcome to the Mother Goose of the '90s - complete with revisionist verses of traditional nursery rhymes.
Out are the old rhymes that implied that parents beat, starved or underfed their children. In are rhymes for these politically correct times.
Or so says Bruce Lansky, a Minnesota publisher whose previous books have included "The Best Baby Name Book in the Whole Wide World," "Moms Say the Funniest Things" and "Dads Say the Dumbest Things."
"I'm on a mission to create a new body of children's literature that is both entertaining and positive without being preachy," Lansky said. "We need to replace traditional children's literature that is archaic, scary, violent, intolerant and sexist, and replace it with literature that reflects contemporary values."
Lansky, the 52-year-old father of two grown children, first noticed how sexist and violent Mother Goose rhymes were when his children were small.
He couldn't explain to his kids why the old woman who lived in the shoe beat her kids and sent them to bed; he didn't like telling his kids that Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater kept his wife in a pumpkin shell. He wasn't crazy about Tom Tom the Piper's Son either - who steals a pig and then gets beaten.
"About 25 percent of the poems I wanted to skip over because they contained something violent, strange or uncomfortable," Lansky said in a telephone interview from his home in Deephaven, Minn. "Another 25 percent of the Mother Goose rhymes use antiquated language - things that kids don't understand."
After publishing a collection of children's poems by modern poets, Lansky decided to take a stab at revising Mother Goose.
It's not exactly a new idea. Experts in children's literature note that traditional stories and rhymes have been under attack for 200 years by social reformers trying to adapt traditional tales to suit the morals of the times.
"This has been done many times," said Alison Lurie, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and literature professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "People are always objecting to one thing or another. Sometimes it's the violence; sometimes it's the sexism."
Even as far back as the early 1800s, British educator Sarah Trimmer, the child-rearing expert of the period, warned parents not to read "Cinderella" to their children.
Said Lurie of Trimmer: "She said no one should ever read `Cinderella' because it taught children disrespect for their stepmothers and it taught jealousy, envy" and placed too much emphasis on clothes.
Over the years, others have tried - and failed - to rewrite favorite children's stories. One of the more recent attempts was made by Ms. magazine, which published non-sexist versions of traditional fairy tales.
The updated modern versions may be politically correct, but they're not always palatable to children.
"Children," Lurie said, "are very suspicious of rhymes that aren't very funny." And parents, she notes, are fond of the rhymes that they grew up with.
Still, Lansky seems to have found an audience. His book has sold 60,000 copies since it debuted in October and is now in the third printing.
"I think there's a huge market of conscientious parents and grandparents who want something good for their kids," Lansky said. "I'm not trying to be politically correct; I'm trying to do something that's needed."
Lansky knew, however, that it would be tough coming up with funny alternatives to the old Mother Goose rhymes.
At first, he enlisted poets to rework the old rhymes. He approached many of the poets who had contributed work to an earlier book he had edited - "Kids Pick the Funniest Poems." But when the poets struggled to come up with engaging rewrites, Lansky put pencil to paper.
"I wrote a few nursery rhymes, just for fun," he said. "And I was persistent. I wrote scores of nursery rhymes and constantly revised them based on comments from children, parents and teachers. Altogether I wrote about 60 percent of the poems in the book."
To make sure that the rhymes appealed to kids, he tested the 41 nursery rhymes on 300 children from ages 3 to 7. In elementary schools and day-care centers, he performed readings and noted the reactions.
"Kids recognize the characters - they know who Humpty Dumpty is and Yankee Doodle. But they love it with an unexpected ending," said Lansky. "Kids love to adulterate stuff. Remember the song `On Top of Spaghetti'? That's an adulteration of `On Top of Old Smoky.' "
The question remains, however: Can you successfully change a nursery rhyme, especially when it has been drilled into the public consciousness?
Lansky is hopeful. "These poems have head stickability, a memorable quality," he said.
Lurie says it is tough but possible. "It's very difficult to get the public to accept new nursery rhymes," Lurie said. "But there are cases in which things have been successfully changed. When I was a child, there used to be a rhyme called `Ten Little Niggers,' then people thought that was awful and it became `Ten Little Indians' and now it is `Ten Little Children.' "
Still, some educators think nursery rhymes are probably best left alone.
Said Linda Lamme, an education professor at the University of Florida: "If I were to say anything about nursery rhymes, I would say leave them alone. If you want contemporary nursery rhymes, write new ones."
Lansky is not deterred. Already, he's planning his next book - a compilation of fairy tales about princesses who refuse to sit around waiting for a prince to show up.
by CNB