Early one spring, a girl is delighted when a flock of Canada geese arrive in her yard, but she is stricken when she realizes one of the geese has an injured foot. The next day, the foot is gone, and the girl wonders how a one-legged goose can possibly survive. In spite of her parents’ advice to let the wild animal learn to survive on its own, the girl feeds Goose cracked corn and keeps an eye out for her. One day in the fall, the geese are gone—all of them. The seasons turn, and the geese return, but this time, it’s only two: Goose, still with a foot missing, and a big, healthy gander. Best of all, seven goslings soon appear—all with both feet intact. The heartbreaking, ultimately hopeful story is based on a real goose from author Best’s (Shrinking Violet, 2001, etc.) own yard, making the happy ending touching rather than overly sentimental. The interplay between the text and the earthy, cut-paper illustrations is remarkable; while the text does not spell out what’s happened to Goose’s foot, the images of the injured limb evoke shock and sadness. Meade (Queenie Farmer Had Fifteen Daughters, p. 488, etc.) employs a woodsy palette of browns, greens, and blues. A variety of perspectives draws readers into the text: some scenes are portrayed from the girl’s point of view, others from Goose’s, some from the ground, some from the sky. Art and story complement each another again at the end: the final, spot illustration of Goose nuzzling one of her goslings on the pond while the girl’s oar drips in the background is an enlarged portion of the previous spread, and the girl’s amazed words repeat: “ ‘Look at you,’ I whisper, ‘Look at you.’ ” Quietly joyful, satisfyingly optimistic. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-374-32750-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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