The Singing Geese - Hardcover

Wahl, Jan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525674993 ISBN 13: 9780525674993

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

Sam, the unlucky farmer, brings home a goose for his wife to cook for dinner, but just as they are about to sit down to eat, a flock of geese flies through the window in an attempt to save their unfortunate companion.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-2?An African-American tall tale in which Sam Bombel shoots a singing goose and takes it home (though it does not appear to be dead) and commands his wife to pluck it and roast it. Just as Sam is about to carve it, the goose raises its head and sings a song. The song is answered by a flock of geese that flies through the window. They lift the cooked goose right out of the pot and they all fly away. And Sam Bombel never went hunting again. The very brief story is told in plain, unadorned language. It includes the goose's repeated song ("La lee loo. Come quilla, come quilla. Bang, bang, bang! Quilla bang.") The music appended is a haunting melody that is not easily sung. The realistic oil illustrations, while not distinguished in themselves, do have exaggerated expressions and perspectives that add humor. Even admitting that this is a tall tale, the pictures of the living goose being plucked, and of the cooked goose sitting in its roasting pan raw?head up, eyes wide, full of pin feathers?not only strain credibility, but are also vaguely repellent. A brief note on the flap states that the author heard this story from an old black man in West Virginia. Like many folktales, this one is bound to be livelier in the telling than it is on the written page. This story can be found, without music, in Jean Cothran's classic collection With a Wig With a Wag and Other American Folk Tales (David McKay, 1954; o.p.).?Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Wahl (I Met a Dinosaur, p. 1396, etc.) retells a weird but funny story told, he says, by an old black man on a porch in West Virginia. Sam Bombel waves goodbye to his wife as she stands on their porch and goes ``to shoot his dinner'' out in the corn field. He hears a flock of geese overhead, singing their geese song, and he shoots one down and carries it home. His wife plucks it and puts it in a pot in the oven, but it makes strange cackling sounds. When it is done, the pot comes out, the goose sings the goose song again, and the whole flock appears, each with a goosefeather, to stick back in the bird, which then flies off. ``And Sam Bombel never went hunting again.'' The rich oil paintings with their bright, sturdy colors and figures show a plain wood cabin, Sam in his overalls, and his wife with an apron over her dress; both have warm, expressive faces that show their comic reactions to some very odd events. The goose never looks cooked, or dead for that matter, with its head and neck rising above the pot of tomatoes and carrots; that suits this slightly surreal tale just fine. (Picture book. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0525674993
• ISBN 13: 9780525674993
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Brown Sterling