The Peter Patter Book

First published in 1918, The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes carried the spirit of Mother Goose into the new century. Leroy F. Jackson, an American writer with a gift for rhythm and humor, created more than a hundred verses that sound as if they had always existed — short, musical, and filled with homely details of everyday life.

Though newer than the traditional English rhymes, these verses have now crossed the hundred-year mark themselves. They belong to the same world: playful, rhythmic, and meant to be spoken aloud. Blanche Fisher Wright, already known for The Real Mother Goose, illustrated the book with soft, lively drawings that capture both the innocence and mischief in Jackson’s words.

This section presents The Peter Patter Book in full, allowing each rhyme to be read separately while keeping the feel of the original collection. Together, they show how the nursery-rhyme tradition — far from fading away — simply changed its accent and found new life in early twentieth-century America.