This study looks at the superstitions, practices and beliefs, rhymes and chants, catcalls and retorts, stock jokes, ruderies, riddles, epithets, nicknames and juvenile slang that continue to flourish among children in England, Scotland and Wales. First published in 1959, it discloses a wealth of traditional lore and language. Iona and Peter Opie also wrote The Singing Game, A Nursery Companion, The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Children's Games in Street and Playground, The Oxford Book of Children's Verse and The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse.