THE GOLDEN GOOSE
by Dick King-Smith & illustrated by Ann Kronheimer
A failing farmer’s fortune changes when Joy, literally, comes into his life. Hatched to a pair of seemingly ordinary geese named Misery and Sorrow, the golden-yellow gosling quickly earns her uplifting moniker, for not only do Farmer Skint and his family get an immediate rush of pleasure from petting her, but suddenly money starts rolling in from lottery and race-track winnings. In no time, the Skints, and their Woebegone Farm, are back in business. Kronheimer’s relaxed pen-and-ink drawings depict a smiling young rural family and a small but self-confident-looking goose who takes up residence in the farmhouse until it’s time to lay eggs (golden ones, to be sure) of her own. Aside from a fox’s brief and fatal walk-on, there isn’t much tension in the plot, but readers in search of farmyard tales featuring naturalistically rendered animals, good-hearted humans, hints of magic and, for good measure, a whiff of metaphor, will come away happy. (Fiction. 9-11)