It is absolutely impossible for me to read these poems without them taking on the rhythm and beat of the musical. Impossible. It's been decades since I first saw that musical - the book was a Christmas present later that same year - and the songs are hard-wired into my brain. I don't know if that's making me give this a different rating than I might have given it otherwise, but I suspect that my love for the musical is wrenching that rating slightly upwards. Either way, it's pretty much impossible for me to differentiate the two at this point. Suffice to say this is a deeply entertaining collection of pretty much ridiculous rhymes, and if I had to pick a favourite at gunpoint it would probably be "Skimbleshanks: the Railway Cat" ("the cat on the railway traaaaaaaaain!").