Just yesterday I received a copy of this classic childhood poem that I had ordered as a present for a favorite niece who is expecting her first baby. Reading the lines and gazing at the beautiful illustrations by Johanna Westerman brought back my own special memories. I had first discovered this edition sixteen years ago when my son was about five. This poem by Eugene Field I always considered a charmer, and I was delighted by the fine artwork that accompanied it, and bought it at once. My boy was already familiar with the words. The singer Carly Simon and her sister Lucy Simon had recorded an album of well-known childhood poems they had set to music. As a teen ager I was a big Carly Simon fan and had bought this album, and although no longer a child I could appreciate its simple pleasures. "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" was the Field poem set to Lucy Simon's music, and that was my favorite. From when my son was an infant I would sing him lullabies at bedtime, and this practice supplemented by my reading stories as he grew older was always one of the best moments of my day. The Simon sisters' version of the poem was always in the repertoire as I knew it by heart, and as he grew older my little boy could sing snatches of it along with me.

So I was thrilled to find this special version, since my wife and I always tried to buy picture books that along with having a fine story were accompanied by special artwork. Besides trying to nurture a love of reading, we both wanted to instill in him an appreciation and hopefully love of art and color at an early age. The jury is still out on that one, at twenty he's more on the jock side, although his buddy & he did visit the Louvre and Uffizi Museums on a European trip two years ago. Still, it clicked with him right away, and became a staple of bedtime reading for over a year or so.

The poem is simple but beguiling, a lullaby couched in terms of a magical nighttime adventure where three young children, Wyncken, Blynken and Nod sail off in their own unique boat, a wooden shoe into the sky where they cast their fishing nets out to catch a special kind of fish, watched by a kindly old moon. The cadences are very soothing, and relaxing, lulling the child towards slumber. Fields' words have sent many generations of children to sweet sleep and dreams, it's a classic of the genre.

Johanna Westerman in her luminous paintings brings the words vividly to life. Wyncken, Blynken and Nod are two boys and a girl clad in nightclothes sailing off in an oversized wooden shoe accompanied by a pet black and white cat. The colors in Ms.Westeman's palette of primarily blues and greens glow with a gentle radiance, and are beautifully executed. It evokes an aura of enchantment, the soft delicate blue of a spring night sky spangled with miniature glittering stars, the foamy sea green waves upon which the wooden shoe rides, it's just perfect. I highly recommend it for children from two years of age to about seven years old.

Also if you try and like this, which I hope you do and will, you should try Eugene Field's "Poems of Childhood" with the special child or children in your life. Three poems my son and I both enjoyed were "The Fly Away Horse" about a wondrous horse that rides to extraordinary places in a child's dreams, the next is "The Duel", also known as "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat", about a mock ferocious battle between two stuffed toys on a shelf and finally "The Sugar Plum Tree", a fantastic candy bearing tree! However I would stay away from one of Fields most famous poems "Little Boy Blue" which I don't think is really appropriate for children as it will tug at an adult's heart strings, and be hard to explain to a child.

Finally, I would recommend the CD "Carly and Lucy Simon Sing Songs for Children". As I mentioned earlier the Simon Sisters set some classic children's poems in addition to "Wyncken..." the selections include "The Owl and the Pussycat" and "The Lobster Quadrille". The sisters voice blend beautifully, and the music is a nice combination of folk and soft rock. Most importantly it introduces children to some delightful poetry. It's a pity that for whatever reason the price has been inflated to $39.99 on Amazon, when I had bought it just three years ago, it was approximately $12.00 or so. However there are used copies starting at just under $10.00.

Beautiful illustrations of a dreamy tale of the "fishermen three" who sail the seas of our imaginations. The very best of a classic bedtime story.

A review on this book is almost a no-brainer. My brother and sister (in their 70s now) had a copy as children, and I (in my 50s) did also. So it stands to reason my son (no2 25) had one too. So, to pass the torch, I bought this copy - beautifully illustrated similarly to the one of the 1940s version - for my niece who is pregnant with her first child. No childhood library should be without Wynken, Blynken and Nod.

I have loved the poem of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod since my childhood. It is a magical verse. The illustrations of this particular book of the poem are beautiful. I recently purchased this book a second time and will gift this recent purchase to a new mother for her infant daughter.

My favorite book when I was little. Exactly how I remembered it and the illustrations are fantastic. So happy I found this book and now I can read it to my kids at bedtime. They love it!

I have always loved this poem since the first time I heard and I was so thrilled to see that they had it in a book for little kids. I bought two of them, because I bought this book for my two year old niece, Brooklyn, so that she has one for her house and every so often she spends the night at our house. Well, she's two years old, so when I handed her the book, she threw it on the floor because she was to busy on the ipad. LOL! So my sister took it to read it to her as her bedtime story. But I recommend this book to everyone to kids because it is so cute and such an adorable story! I am so happy with my purchase!

I was looking for a board book for my son with this lyrical verse and while I love the poem, the illustrations are disappointing to say the least. The fact Wynken, Blynken and Nod are bunnies is okay, it is the girl in the end. She looks like a woman, not a child and the actual mother putting her to bed looks like a child...very strange. This poem is so beautiful and I had high expectations for better illustrations. I would buy a different version if I could find it in a board book.

Bought for a baby shower gift for a grandma to be. This was a book my mom used to read to us. She loved it. Put a sterling silver Pandora "Prince Charm" with it. The grandma was hoping for a "Princess" but got a "Prince".