I Met a Woman Near Ballycanew and Other Nonsense Rhymes for Children
The esteemed Gabriel Rosenstock has left our company very recently, and all too soon. Acclaimed for his large contribution to both adult and children’s Irish language literature, this posthumous rhyming picturebook is a fantastic addition to his legacy. Comprising of a whistle-stop tour of Ireland, the place names thus encountered, in the tradition if not quite the form of the limerick, handily providing the rhymes for the whole extravaganza.
Witness a woman in Leabgarrow try to hit a sparrow with a bow and arrow (using a suction-cup plunger instead of an arrow) or meet a distinctly odd personage called Mick Muldoon, who has ‘spent some time on the moon’, wears a wicker cage on his head, and invites the narrator to ‘look closely’ at a proffered spoon. Or how about the gent in Kilrush with a long scribbly beard containing a thrush?
This is such a joyous book. The madcap verse, inventive and often hilarious in itself, is equalled if not surpassed by Brian Fitzgerald’s sumptuous images, the latter craftily (in every sense of the word) stylised and, with their ‘all-over’ approach, functioning almost as hieroglyphics. The generally parochial and semi-obscure place names, pinpointed on a map of Ireland at the beginning of the book, only add to the allure for curious readers. Riotous good fun all and proof that nonsense can be a balm for the soul.
