AN INVESTIGATIVE TRAIL OF FAVOURITE NURSERY RHYMES
By Tim Devlin
Illustrated by Katarina Dragoslavić
 
If you think Ring a Ring o'Roses has anything to do with the Great Plague or the Black Death you should read this book.
 
Were Jack and Jill really a pair of lovers and what were they doing going up that hill? And as for Humpty Dumpty, there's nothing about a king or his horses in the oldest version of it.
 
Cracking Humpty Dumpty is full of surprises about the rhymes many of us can recite so well. But do you really know what they mean? By tracing the earliest surviving source of each rhyme, exploring hearsay evidence and the wit and wisdom of some two dozen other nursery rhyme detectives, this book comes up with the most likely answers for: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Georgie Porgie Pudding & Pie, Grand Old Duke of York, Hey, Diddle Diddle, Humpty Dumpty, Jack & Jill, Little Boy Blue, Little Bo-Peep, Mary Mary Quite Contrary, Old King Cole, Oranges & Lemons and Ring a Ring o'Roses.
 
The illustrations depict many of the clues and make it a beautiful nursery rhyme book but this time for grown ups!