Classroom Connections to History, Stories, and Literature

Abstract

Roberts, C. (2005). Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme (2nd ed., U.S. ed.). New York: Penguin The foreword material to the book Heavy Words Lightly Thrown tells us that author Chris Roberts is a librarian and tour guide in London. Along the way, he has collected interesting histories of common rhymes such as “Jack Be Nimble” and “Three Blind Mice.” For the American edition of this book, he kindly included a glossary for his pithy British terms and added “Yankee Doodle” and “Rock-aBye Baby,” which have strong American roots. In our folk-song based curricula it is sometimes a struggle to keep children engaged in core songs with antiquated terms and sensibilities. This book may be a way to enliven the discussion and enrich students’ sense of history and culture with information such as the following insight into the refrain of “This Old Man.”