Today, we have more than a thousand nursery rhymes in print that are listed under the name of “Mother Goose,” ranging from those written in the last two hundred years, to those which have been traced back over 400 years or more.

Nursery rhymes lean heavily on oral tradition, having been passed along by word of mouth from one generation to another.  They cover riddles, counting rhymes, folklore, lullabies, political and religious darts as well as unsavory themes never meant for The ears of children. To quote from the  OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NURSERY THRYMES by Iona and Peter Opie:  “It may be safely stated that the overwhelming majority of nursery rhymes were not in the first place composed for children; in fact, they are survivals of an adult code of joviality, and in their original wording were, by present standards, strikingly unsuitable for those of tender years.”

The name “Mother Goose” was first used in print by a Frenchman named Charles Perrault in 1697.  He wrote famous nursery tales (not rhymes) such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella etc. There is no ONE author of old Mother Goose rhymes.

James O. Halliwell (1820-1889) an Englishman, was the first to draw attention to the Great antiquity of nursery rhymes, and published the great “Nursery Rhymes of England” In 1842. He did much research tracing many rhymes back to the 15th Century.

Old “Mother Goose” is securely lodged as a cornerstone of childrens'  literature, In spite of  undesirable lines such as “They cut off their tails with the carving knife,” (in Three Blind Mice”)... CHRISTIAN Mother Goose brings us “THREE KIND MICE”...along with other favorite rhymes that fill a child’s world with the reassurance of Faith, Hope and Love.