Mountain Mother Goose: Child Lore of West Virginia

Mountain Mother Goose is a collection of jingles, jangles, rhymes, riddles, games, and lesson stories chanted and sung on the playgrounds of Central Appalachia, recited in one-room schools, and echoed in backyards and schoolyards throught the small villages and farms that dotted the hills and valleys of West Virginia. Stretching through most of the 20th Century, this collection of melodies traces the regional attitudes and traditions of American children at play. As early progressive educators and folklorists, Dr. Walter Barnes and Dr. Ruth Ann Musick painstakingly gathered a rich harvest of child lore. Dr. Barnes encouraged Dr. Musick to pluck the folk ways and narratives of youngsters by sharing with his younger colleague the many examples that he had heard from children in the rural schools around the state.