American Children's Folklore

Folklorist Simon Bronner set out to document what children actually pass among themselves — not the cleaned-up material adults approve of, but the real stuff: taunts, rude rhymes, song parodies, jump-rope chants, secret languages, and crude jokes. As a scholarly collection covering post-WWII American childhood culture, it's thorough and rigorously annotated. Bronner is a distinguished figure in folklore studies, and this remains a standard academic reference. The honest caveat is essential: this is not a family read-aloud. The raw peer-culture content is documented as found, and it includes material that is genuinely crude. It belongs in university libraries and the hands of researchers, educators, and curious parents — not on the coffee table. Approach it as an anthropologist would, not a children's librarian.