I'll trade you this for that! Whether trading marbles, baseball cards,
or doll clothes, children have always enjoyed the game of trading. In
this captivating book, illustrator Gabriella Geida imagines this beloved
folk song as a way of trading toys between friends. Also known as "The
Foolish Boy," "Wim Wim Wobble O," "I Went to London," and "Old John
Braddalum," the song is most likely British in origin and was frequently
recorded in the twentieth century. "The Foolish Boy" is an old English
nursery rhyme whose story can be found in variations in Hans Christian
Andersen and The Brothers Grimm. The theme of making swaps, each one
with a worse outcome than the previous swap, can be found in German
folklore. Like the other picture books in John M. Feierabend's First
Steps in Music series, The Swapping Song includes a description of the
history of the song, the notation of the song, and a link to a free MP3
download of the song, sung by Jill Trinka.