The Goose That Almost Got Cooked

A goose drops away from the flock during migration and settles in at a farm, where life seems very pleasant for awhile until she finds out just why the farmer keeps geese

PreSchool-Grade 2. Even though she narrowly escapes becoming the main course on the farmer's dinner table, a daring Canada goose still delights in doing her own thing. A tale to savor, delectably illustrated.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Emily the Canadian goose dares to be different--she is constantly breaking flight formation with fanciful flips and loop-the-loops. Even cautious friend Sam cannot talk sense into this silly goose, who tires out and lands in a farmer's barnyard with seven plump domestic geese that are being fattened for the kill. Emily has molted her flight feathers, so it seems there's no escape from the oven. Biding her time, the day arrives when she lunges past the farmer's wife and rediscovers flight--and freedom: ``It felt great to be back with her friends.'' It's a somewhat predictable tale, and not really worthy of the friendly art that gives Emily plenty of personality. From the comical bottoms-up, flayed-legs view of the farmer's wife's bloomers to the mournful portrait of a lone goose missing her flock, Simont's watercolors harken back to the pastoral days of Janice May Udry's A Tree Is Nice (1955), combined with the humor of his work in Karla Kuskin's The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (1982). (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.