jadzia66's Full Review: Caroline Church - One Smart Goose
I took many things into account when trying to find a summer time activity for my 6 year old daughter. I quickly vetoed any organized sports right off the bat. I was not thrilled with the idea of her running around in 95 degree heat and neither was she. She hated gym class in school and while she loves to run around and play outside, she likes to do so on her own terms. Then the school sent home a flier about the summer reading program at the public library and bingo... we found our summer time activity. Tuesday was our first day and after story and craft time the kids could play or color or look at books to borrow. One Smart Goose was one of the 8 books (yes, 8!) that Courtney took out and it's one of our favorites.
All About One Smart Goose
One Smart Goose is a 25 page picture book written by Caroline Jayne Church. I don't see where anyone is listed as the illustrator of this book but the pictures are cute and very humorous. One Smart Goose has a copyright date of 2003. It was first published in Great Britain by Oxford University Press. It was published in the U.S. by Orchard Books which is an imprint of Scholastic Inc.
One Smart Goose has an ISBN# of 0-439-68765-9.
The Story
On a farm lived a gaggle of geese. One goose who had dirty feathers and the rest of the geese, who had clean feathers. The geese with the clean feathers didn't associate with the little goose with dirty feathers. Every month, at the full moon, a fox would come and chase all the geese, all of them except the goose with the dirty feathers. The geese finally get tired of it and ask the goose with the dirty feathers what his secret is. Being a nice goose, he tells them. Later on, when the seasons changed, he tried to tell the geese something important only to find that the geese were ignoring him once again. In the end, the goose with the dirty feathers saves the day and is finally accepted by the other geese.
Why We Recommend One Smart Goose
Courtney and I really enjoyed reading One Smart Goose and also liked the illustrations that went with the story. What I particularly liked was the Goose's resourcefulness when it came to dealing with the fox. I also liked how he came to the rescue in the end, little that the other geese deserved it though. Another thing I like about this book is that the wording is simple and easy enough for my 6 year old to read on her own. This has inspired Courtney to read One Smart Goose several times already and we've only had the book out since Tuesday.
What I didn't like about One Smart Goose was the conceit and nastiness of the other geese even though the goose with the dirty feathers told them his strategy, or at least part of it since they refused to listen to him in the end. Unfortunately, dealing with a group of stuck up snobs is something that many of us deal with in real life, especially when in school. Personally, I think the gaggle of geese deserved to be chased by that fox just for the way they treated the goose with the dirty feathers and if I were that goose, I would probably be very tempted to leave them to their fate. Obviously I'm not applying the virtue of forgiveness here so I didn't convey to Courtney my feelings on the matter, I just let her draw her own conclusions since we are different people who react to things in a different way.
Overall though, One Smart Goose was a great choice from the library. Now all I have to do is to review the rest of the books she borrowed!
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.