A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea: Favourite Rhymes from an Irish Childhood

by Sarah Webb, Steve McCarthy (Illustrator)

Overview

A beautifully illustrated collection of nursery rhymes to treasure, and songs, poems and rhymes to share. Enjoy Irish favourites like ‘Brian O’Linn’ and ‘I’ll Tell Me Ma’, classics such as ‘My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean’ and ‘Monday’s Child’, silly rhymes that every child will love like ‘Beans’, ‘Pardon Me’ and ‘On Top of Spaghetti’, as well as magical verses for children written by Oscar Wilde, Oliver St John Gogarty, James Joyce and others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847177940
Publisher:	Irish American Book Company
Publication date:	11/11/2017
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	8.65(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Sarah Webb is a children's author who combines writing with schools visits, reading and giving workshops at festivals, and teaching creative writing. She has won two Irish Book Awards for her children's books (for A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea and Blazing a Trail), as well as the Children’s Books Ireland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Books, awarded in 2015. Sarah worked for many years as a children’s bookseller and was writer in residence for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in 2016/2017: she is currently the Children’s Literary Advisor to Listowel Writers’ Week. For more, visit www.sarahwebb.info

Steve McCarthy is a Dublin-born art maker and obsessive picture-builder. With a keen interest in colour and character, Steve has managed to sneak his singular style into many forms, from Cartoon Saloon’s Oscar-nominated feature film Song of the Sea to children’s books and projects for brands worldwide. His work won Best Illustration at the IDI Irish Design Awards 2016. For more, visit www.mrstevemccarthy.com

Sarah and Steve’s first book together for The O’Brien Press was Sally Go Round the Stars (with Claire Ranson), which was nominated for Irish Children’s Book of the Year at the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards.

Editorial Reviews

2018-03-04
Webb and McCarthy present 69 nursery rhymes, poems, songs, and verses in a humorously illustrated read-aloud anthology.The subtitle is meant literally, as the anthologist is Irish, rather than as a promise of all-Irish content. Many familiar and not iconically Irish rhymes, such as "She'll Be Coming 'round the Mountain" and "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear," are here, as well as Irish staples like "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." Many of the verses selected are anonymous, but in addition to William Butler Yeats, such Irish notables as James Joyce and Padraic Colum are included. Non-Irish poets of renown also appear, with Robert Louis Stevenson's "Happy Thought" and Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat," among others. Although Webb's introduction alludes to research that yields Irish connections, she provides little expatiation beyond informing readers that Irish-born labor organizer Mother Jones may have been that woman coming around that mountain. One verse per page is the norm, although on occasion a second complementing verse or one-liner is added. For example, Oscar Wilde's "Symphony in Yellow," about a yellow omnibus crawling across a bridge like a yellow butterfly, shares a page with the quip "What is a butterfly? At best, he's but a caterpillar dressed." Digitally composed illustrations featuring cartoonishly quirky animal and human characters (racially diverse) in muted, opaque colors decorate the book.While the Irish connections are often opaque, repeated recitations are a must. (Picture book/poetry. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews