In response to reader questions and requests, the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has a new paragraph (8.185) called “Titles of Folktales, Fables, Nursery Rhymes, and the Like.” The new guidelines suggest that such titles be styled like shorter poems, with roman type and quotation marks. Stories that are published as books, plays, or operas should have italic titles, like those works.

Top: Knave of Hearts, Image from page 12 of “The Real Mother Goose” (1916). Courtesy Internet Archive Book Images.

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