Ethel Fairmont

Rhymes for Kindly Children is one of several books I received from an elderly woman I thought I'd read before donating.

It's typical for its publication era in the 20s and 30s. All the poems address the social importance of good manners like being clean and thinking about others. Many lessons are superficial, like they belong to the upper class socialite stereotype. Other pages address simply being thoughtful and kind without any blind address toward social standards. I couldn't read more than one poem at a time without reflecting on Myer's Briggs personality types and how the book wasn't just a reflection of its time but the author's voice and perspective had to be ESFJ or ISFJ, pardon the stereotype.

What I appreciated was that there were several poems and illustrations directed toward proper treatment of animals: keep the horses fed, don't abandon cats, don't just give food and water but offer love, don't wear a bonnet full of bird feathers because the feather belong on the singing bird. Interestingly, the animal poems weren't told from the motherly, omniscient voice, but from the child characters.

Overall I'm not a fan of the subculture this book was meant for, but it humored me with the perspective of another era and what it wanted to endow its youth.… (más)