I was primarily a childrens book illustrator for many years, with a few years of waitressing thrown in, but I recently had to take a second job working with young kids in order to have health insurance. Having illustrated a series of Mother Goose rhymes as posters, I noticed most of my 5 and 6 year old students had no knowledge of the sweet old lady. I had mindlessly recited many of the poems in my childhood, never questioning their meaning or origin. Some of them were really weird and didn't make much sense, so I recently did a bit of asking around and some online research. Turns out that the "sweet" old lady is thought to have many features attributed to the witches which were hunted in the 1600s. While some of the poem categories feature harmless lullabys, riddles, and educational elements, others contain references to more serious political incidents. For instance, "Ring Around the Rosy" is believed to refer to the bubonic plague. I was shocked to find out that "Mary Mary, Quite Contrary" with her beautiful garden growing is associated with the English Queen Mary the 1st's torture of Protestants!! I hope this information will be filed away somewhere in the back of your mind for use when home on the couch watching Jeopardy,but please don't let it ruin your enjoyment of the poems. One site I visited also mentioned how this "emergent literature" also helps young children develop their language skills and show them the rich possibilities of the literary experience(in simple talk, it encourages reading!!) For anyone interested here's the link to my shop.... http://www.etsy.com/shop/hoddleypoddley