Review of "Mary and Her Little Lamb," by Will Moses

 Review of

Mary and Her Little Lamb, by Will Moses ISBN 9780399251542

Five out of five stars

Great origin story

 Many of the verses considered nursery rhymes have a factual basis of origin and the classic “Mary Had A Little Lamb” is one of them. A girl by the name of Mary Elizabeth Sawyer attended the Redstone School in Sudbury, Massachusetts and when she was young a very small and sickly lamb was born. Concerned that it would die, Mary took it into their house and carefully nursed it to health.

 As it grew older, the lamb and Mary played together as the lamb was Mary’s only playmate. She dressed it up and they played games together. When Mary went to school, the lamb literally followed her and walked in to lay down under her desk. A man named John Roulstone was visiting the school that day and witnessed the lamb following Mary in the building. He came back the next day and handed Mary a poem that he had written about the event. It was eight lines long and was the basis for the song and verse we know today. Over the years, the basic poem has been expanded and the music has been added to construct the modern song.

 This story is one that children will relate to and enjoy. Everyone knows some of the song and verse and it is a joy to learn how one of the simplest and most popular songs was created. It is the first thing that I played when I was learning to play the saxophone.