London Bridge Is Falling Down

ISBN 0385080255 - There are hundreds of books of nursery rhymes and they often make me wonder... why? Truthfully, not once in the first 20 years of my life did I ever read London Bridge. It came into my world as a song and a game, not a story. With that history, I read these books with suspicion, assuming that they're just a cheap way to make money without doing actual work or writing. Then, to make me re-think that, an author like Iza Trapani (The Itsy Bitsy Spider) or an illustrator like Peter Spiers comes along with a fantastic book. The text is just the classic rhyme, with nothing added to it, although some of the verses are ones I'd long ago forgotten. It's the illustrations that make the book. For whatever reason, Spiers chose what looks like the mid-1700s (a guess, based on tri-corner hats and those hideous wigs) as a setting for the constant falling down and building up of the famous bridge. The details makes the images look a bit like Where's Waldo drawings, which means that you can look at these every day and see something you missed before. In the back, the book includes the music, for those who can read it (not I!). Last, there are three pages of the history of the Old London Bridge, beginning in 43 B.C. Many interesting details, like the fact that houses and shops were built on the bridge, are included. This lifts the book from simple nursery rhyme for very young children to a useful educational tool for older kids, too. - AnnaLovesBooks

Peter Spier's exquisite watercolors are a delightful accompaniment to the old nursery rhyme "London Bridge Is Falling Down". The evocative, sometimes whimsical illustrations conjure up Merry Old England and the famous bridge that kept falling down. A must-read for children, and worthwhile for any adult who appreciates a fine example of children's literature married to imaginative visuals.