With Mars and Mir much in the news, it is tempting and topical to blend astronomical nursery rhymes with bedtime fantasy. Patricia Quinlan, author of Planting Seeds and My Dad Takes Care of Me, has extrapolated “Hey diddle diddle” to a nighttime journey through the solar system, guided by cat and dog, cow, plate and spoon. The book is dedicated to her son, Kevin, who is present as the pajama-clad traveller cavorting on Pluto and Saturn with his copy of Mother Goose firmly in hand.

Ron Berg’s illustrations are an odd mix of realism and poster art. His comets and asteroids and the bright orange winking eye of Jupiter resemble computer paintings from the NASA web site. The cow is lovingly detailed; veins and forelock and black mottled nose and hair-tipped ears all appear drawn from life. In contrast, the dog in bomber jacket and goggles and the cat in pink satin seem like visitors from another book,while young Kevin fades in and out, sometimes overly detailed and sometimes almost two-dimensional.

Sadly, the fading metaphor also extends to the text. The sturdy images and word pictures of the original “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle” have easily transcended woodcuts, detailed engravings, high realism, and even colour-field geometry. The nursery poetry of Milne, Lear, Seuss, and Stevenson is similarly powerful. Their images stick in the mind and imagination so cleanly, parent and child can recreate the moment by rechanting the poems sans pictures. Such great nursery verse is also frequently set to music, a clear indication of internal structure and poetics. But try as we might, no one could remember any of this text once the cover was closed. The verse is awkward and strained and scansion is poor (“The dog says ‘Stars and planets call/Come on, Kevin, we’ll see them all.’ .…They ride across the dark, hushed sky/Past Mars and Jupiter they fly”). The voice is an odd mixture of passively formal (“though nighttime shadows slowly creep, Kevin is not yet asleep”) and colloquial (“Watch me jump those moons.”) And in an attempt at either minimalism or misplaced simplicity, the rhymes (“sky, fly, by”) often seem forced and lame. Graceful simplicity is very hard to achieve. Before a new verse enters the rich world of children’s literature it might be better to revisit existing classics. Ron Berg has also illustrated The Owl and the Pussycat. Perhaps a book of Kevin’s favourite nursery rhymes or a bit more Lear with updated paintings would have been a better choice.