The One with the Waggly Tail by Sarah Webb and Steve McCarthy

A new, beautifully illustrated collection of favourite nursery rhymes from the team that brought you Sally Go Round the Stars (short-listed, Irish Book Awards) and A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea (winner, Irish Book Awards). It includes favorite international, British and Irish rhymes, as well as special Irish favorites. Includes:

- It's a Long Way to Tipperary

- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive

- Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

- The Wild Swans at Coole

- Lámh, Lámh Eile

- Polly Put the Kettle on

- Hot Cross Buns!

and many, many more!

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The third in this lovely series more than lives up to its predecessors. Hardback and with a ribbon to mark your place, this features more than sixty poems, along with snippets of poems and sayings. (And it has a wonderful new book smell, but your mileage may vary on that one.) Steve McCarthy's illustrations add just the right touch of whimsey and fun.

I was a little disappointed that some songs only have a chorus or one verse while others are printed in full. But obviously sacrifices have to be made to fit this many awesome songs and rhymes into one relatively thin book, so I think it was worth it overall.

It's hard to pick a favourite when there's this many amazing ones - I kept stopping to go "Oh! I remember that one!" and I sang a lot of them, much to my housemate's dismay - but I do have a soft spot for I Saw a Ship A-Sailing, just because it was in a collection I adored as a very small child. This is definitely one I'm going to come back to and reread bits of, and pay a lot more attention to the illustrations - Steve deserves it but I didn't have a lot of time this time around! Next time, Steve, I promise.

This book is going to be an amazing Christmas present. I can't wait for the boxset of all three!