I Saw Esau

"The mood is insouciant glee. A treasure." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

That’s what children chant when they are being teased; it’s what their parents chanted, and their grandparents and their great-grandparents before them. Collected in this invaluable book are the wit and wisdom of generations of schoolchildren — more than one hundred and seventy rhymes ranging from insults and riddles to tongue twisters, jeers, and jump-rope rhymes. With Iona Opie’s introduction and detailed notes and Maurice Sendak’s remarkable pictures — vignettes, sequences, and full-page paintings both wickedly funny and comically sad — here is a book that deserves a place among the classic texts of childhood."Sendak. . . . dramatizes the verses' challenging spirit in some splendidly witty and imaginative interpretations: Dr. Fell is truly ghoulish, but his victim remains undaunted. Scores of these pictures are masterpieces of illustration: lively, exquisitely designed, offering unexpected insights while enthusiastically celebrating their texts. Overall, the handsome format is worthy of the content, and the mood is insouciant glee. A treasure. New introduction by Iona Opic; notes, nicely leavened by Sendak's characters, who reappear among them." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)