Reviews

Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood by Josepha Sherman, T.K.F. Weisskopf

pziemlewicz's review

4.0

This book was like a wonderful trip down memory lane. I loved reading rhymes I haven't thought of in 30+ years, along with their regional variations. Soon much fun!

librarianryan's review

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

 

It is so hard to wrap my heard around this being a banned book.  The authors collected children’s sing songs and rhymes, and their variations across the US, put them in a book.  They talk about how and why these songs vary the meaning behind some of them.  It is full American childhood folklore.  I grew up with my dad singing these songs.  They always made me smile but I never knew how much of a cultural phenomenon they were.  They are largely gone today.  Most children do not know these, and they are not passed down like they were.  I love that not only do I have the memory of these rhymes and singsongs, but that someone took the time to collect them and write about them before they are gone forever.  So, pull up a bucket of mutilated monkey meat, and enjoy this history of gross songs from childhood. 

mattm's review

4.0

Mary had a little lamb.
She gave it castor oil.
And everywhere that Mary went,
It fertilized the soil.

I worked in a bookstore for about a year after university, while deciding where and how to embark on my career, and this book (and several like it) was one of the hidden treasures of the children's department, in a tiny section called "Children's Anthropology."

I finally got around to reading it cover to cover, and it was a lot of fun.