Little Georgie's pre-dawn flights on the back of a friendly goose (she calls him her swan prince) are not burdened by the allegorical content that characterized the mind trips of older step-cousins Eleanor and Eddy in three previous Langton novels. Rather, intense Georgie is the innocent child in love with sweet nature (but not preciously so). She longs to fly, and the goose teaches her how—at Walden Pond, no less. But insensitive adults must interfere: banker Ralph Preek buys a gun and launches a personal vendetta against the "giant duck"; and his secretary Miss Prawn, Georgie's next-door neighbor, becomes concerned that Georgie is either a saint or a changeling, and the goose, accordingly, an angel or a fairy about to steal her away. (As for Transcendental College proprietor Uncle Freddie, whose flat-footed literary welcome had earlier scared the bird away, he comes to believe that Georgie's goose is Henry Thoreau himself, reincarnated.) With Mr. Preek stalking clumsily throughout, the inevitable tragedy occurs. Georgie recovers from the goose's death, as children will, but only after she has located its parting "present": a rubber ball that becomes, in the dark, a glowing image of the planet Earth. Except for an opening false-note prematurely espousing the goose's viewpoint, Langton makes Georgie's story a successful blend of humor, charm, pathos, family feeling, and that hint of something transcendent that lights up all her fantasies.
Pub Date: March 19, 1980
ISBN: 0064401219
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1980
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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