The Tales of Mother Goose

Charles Perrault published The Tales Of Mother Goose in France in 1697. This inaugural collection of French fairy tales features characters like Sleeping Beauty Cinderella and Puss in Boots that over the course of the eighteenth century became icons of social history in France and abroad. Perrault's tales are primarily moralistic or didactic with elements of Christian teaching about which scholar Lydia Jean says they were written to reinforce royal absolutism; [Perrault] defended the primacy of the Catholic faith. Knowledge of nursery rhymes enhances children's phonological sensitivity which in turn helps them to learn to read. The sounds (phonemes) and rhythms of the nursery rhymes help little kids learn pronunciation and the cadence of reading. Rhymers are readers many experts tout.