Review #102: The Goose Girl

Last month we took recommendations for books that our readers wanted the Z-Kids to review.  In the weeks that followed, we read as many as we could; then the kids ranked their favorites.  After tallying up the votes, we decided to share the books that placed in the top three spots.  Thanks to "Renee" for recommending today's book: The Goose Girl!

Gracie (age 10):  "The Goose Girl" is about a princess who can talk to animals.  And everybody thinks that's weird.  So her mom sends her away to get married to a prince in another country.
Isaac (age 12):  The princess' name is Anidori-Kiladra.  If she doesn't marry the prince, the other country may invade theirs.  So they are going to make a peace treaty between the two kingdoms.
Gracie:  But on the way, Anidori-Kiladra's lady-in-waiting Selia tries to kill her.
Dad:  I think we're safe giving that away.  I wasn't really surprised....
Isaac:  I figured it out.
Gracie:  You could tell she was going to turn bad, because they kept saying, "You're such a good friend... You're such a good friend..."
Lily (age 8):  The lady-in-waiting Selia looks exactly like the princess, so she took her place.  She wanted to be the princess so she could marry the prince and be over the palace.
Isaac:  And... what's that guys name?  Ungolad?  He's the evil henchman of Selia.  I'm going to draw him because he's cool.  Well... he's not cool.  He's evil.  But how I imagined him looking is cool.
Gracie:  And the book tells you the adventure of Anidori-Kiladra escaping and running through the woods.  And when she gets to the city, she has to hide from Selia and all the guards, so she goes into disguise.
Lily:  And she changes her name.
Isaac:  She has to hide and get a job.
Lily:  She took care of geese.  That's called a Goose Girl.
Isaac:  We mentioned that she can talk to animals.  That's kind of an important part.
Lily:  But there's this other Goose Boy.
Gracie:  He hates her because he's used to being the only Goose Person.  Then when Anidori-Kiladra comes in there and starts talking to the geese, he feels jealous.
Isaac:  She has to prove to the king that she's the real princess.  And at the end they had a big battle.
Gracie:  She also finds out that she can talk to the wind too.  She didn't know that before.  So she talks to the wind.
Isaac:  The end half of the book was really exciting.
Gracie:  This isn't a main part of the book, but I have to say it because it freaks me out.  Selia says, "The penalty for treason is to be put into a barrel of nails and drawn by four white horses through the city!"  Which is FREAKY!  So I had to say that.
Dad:  Do you guys know who wrote this?
Gracie:  No.  Let me guess.  "Princess Academy."
Dad:  Yep, Shannon Hale.  You could tell.  Why, what's similar between "Princess Academy" and "Rapunzel's Revenge" and "Goose Girl"?
Gracie:  They are all about girls in hiding, away from home...
Dad:  Why did you guys like this book so much?
Gracie:  It is exciting.  And romantic.  And people die in it.  And Anidori-Kiladra makes a lot of good friends.  And she has a lot of secrets.
Lily:  This book had the power of love.
Gracie:  It's one of those stories that... you don't know why you like it, but it's one of your favorite books you ever heard.  One of those books that you want to listen to over and over again.
Dad:  Did Anidori-Kiladra grow and change over the course of the book?
Isaac:  Character Arc!
Gracie:  At the beginning, she was trying to be perfect just like her mother.
Lily:  But she was bad at it.
Gracie:  She was trying to prepare for her future.  But nothing prepared her as much as Celia's evil rebellion.
Lily:  At the beginning she was a scaredy cat.  She was puny and picky.  But she grew into a brave person.
Gracie:  At the beginning she was expecting to be waited on and served.  But by the end she just expected to sleep on the floor.
Dad:  What would you guys do if you could talk to the wind?
Gracie:  I could make Cameron's hat blow away.  That would annoy him so much!
Dad:  Why do you want to annoy Cameron?  Hmmmmmmm...
Isaac:  Oooooo...
Gracie:  Giggle giggle giggle
Dad:  I think you just want to look at his flowing locks.
Isaac:  His luscious hair...
Gracie:  giggle
Dad:  How about animals?  Would you guys like to be able to talk to animals?
Gracie:  Oh yeah.
Dad:  What would you say to them?
Gracie:  I would tell them not to poop in our yard.
Dad:  Great.
Lily:  I would say...  "Hi!  How are you doing?"
All:  HA ha hahh ha!
Gracie:  We're all really lame!
Dad:  It's a good thing super animal-powers weren't wasted on you guys.
Isaac:  I would ask them weird question about what animals do and why.
Gracie:  Yeah, questions about the mysteries of science.
Mom:  I would always check to see if they have rabies.
Isaac:  Ha ha ha...  "Hello, little baby raccoon...  Do you have rabies?"
Mom:  Like that possum we saw...  I would love to have asked him why he was walking around out in the middle of the day!
Isaac:  "Ohhhhh...  I've got rabies."
All:  HAH ha ha ha ha!

goose girl, by Lily

Ungolad, by Isaac

showdown in front of the king, by Gracie

Author: Shannon Hale
Published, 2003: Bloomsbury
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Review #88: Princess Academy

Dad:  Today we are taking a look at "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale.  Where should we start?  Is there anything you want to say about the plot?
Gracie (age 10):  The what?
Dad:  The plot.  The storyline?
Gracie:  New word!  Boopity-boop-boo-boo!  "Plot!"
Isaac (age 12):  The story is mainly about this girl named Miri.
Gracie:  She lives on a mountain.  The only way her village can live and eat is because they sell linder, which is this really valuable stone.
Dad:  They use linder for things like constructing buildings and carving statues.
Gracie:  I'm not sure if linder really exists or not.  Because it's not in our Rocks and Minerals book.
Dad:  You looked for it?
Gracie:  Yeah.  I actually did.
Lily (age 8):  Miri didn't really think she was much use to her family.  They wouldn't let her work in the quarry.
Isaac:  Everyone has big bulging muscles because they work in the quarry.  But for some reason -- it's like a mystery in the book -- for a reason that I'm not going to tell you, Miri's dad won't let her work.  So Miri feels puny and worthless because of that.
Lily:  The girls that live on the mountain go to an academy.  Only girls.  They are all going to be trained to be princesses.  But the prince is going to choose just one.
Gracie:  At the academy they have a really mean teacher!  She locks them in a closet!
Lily:  Miri disobeyed the rules.  So she went to the closet and everybody forgot about her.  And there was a rat!  A big, furry rat!  It was making a nest in her hair.
Dad:  Ew!
Lily:  They totally forgot about her.  She was lucky that someone finally remembered about her.
Dad:  And how did Gerti finally remember Miri was in there?
Lily:  She used "quarry speech."  You see, the quarry workers use it to talk to each other.  Like in emergencies.
Isaac:  Because it's so loud when they are linder mining, the quarry workers can sing a song in their mind to each other.
Lily:  They don't tell warnings with their mouths.  They tell them with their hearts.
Dad:  So it's a little bit like reading minds.  They send email messages with their brains.
Lily:  And their hearts.
Isaac:  But the lowlanders -- the people who don't live on the mountain -- can't do quarry speech.  So that's another mystery that they have to figure out.  How quarry speech actually works, and why sometimes they can do it and sometimes they can't.  There's like a billion mysteries in here.
Dad:  Isaac, were you worried this book was going to be too "girly" when we started?
Isaac:  Yes.  I got through the first parts because it sounds so much like a historical fiction book.  Even when there are little bits of magic, it makes sense how it works.
Dad:  And you like books that sound historical.
Isaac:  I thought the first part was just interesting.  But then the story got very, very, extremely exciting.  This thing happens - I don't want to give it away.  But everyone gets in danger, and it's really exciting.  I was on the edge of my seat while I was listening.
Dad:  So would boys like this book?
Isaac:  I don't know.  I liked it.  It gets exciting if you stick with it.  But honestly, I think most boys -- I think my friends -- would have different opinions if they read it.
Dad:  Fair enough.  Now here's what I'd like to do.  I want to see if you can tell me some of the changes that took place during the story.  For instance, did Miri like the academy at the beginning of the book?
Lily:  No.
Dad:  Did she like it at the end of the book?
Lily:  Yeah.
Dad:  So what is that called?  A...
Lily:  Uhhhhhhhhh...
Dad:  ...change.
Lily:  "Change."  I thought there would be a big fancy word for it.
Dad:  No, no.  I just want to see if you can think of changes that took place.  But I'll teach you a word...  A good story has what's called an "Arc."  It can be boring if a story is like a flat line -- if everything at the beginning of the story is the same as in the middle and at the end.  But if a story has an Arc, if people change over the course of the book, then that makes for a far more interesting story.
Lily:  Miri didn't really hang out with the girls much at the beginning.  But then she hanged out with everybody!
Gracie:  She got really popular.
Dad:  And who was responsible for that?
Gracie:  Miri worked at it.
Dad:  What else?
Gracie:  All the mountain people hated lowlanders.  But by the end, they realized lowlanders weren't that bad.
Dad:  And who was responsible for that change?
Isaac:  Miri!
Dad:  So she made the changes happen.  That's a second thing that makes a story interesting.  Things shouldn't just happen TO a character, but instead the character should be the one who helps make the changes come about.
Lily:  At the beginning Miri felt like a teeny itsy bitty little baby.  At the end she felt old enough to do stuff.
Isaac:  She figures out how quarry speech works, and they use it a lot, and it helps them out in dangerous times.  By the end they realized how important it is.
Lily:  Miri didn't really speak up that she loved Peder at the beginning.  But at the end she did a teeny bit.  She didn't tell him that she loved him.  But they held hands.  Hee hee hee!
Isaac:  At the beginning they hated the Academy.
Gracie:  At the end they thought, "Wow - I can't believe we would have gone all our lives not knowing this awesome stuff!"
Dad:  See, once we get going, we find changes everywhere.  And who is the main person that causes the changes?
Lily:  Miri.
Dad:  So that's a lesson to learn about good writing.  Stuff happens, obviously.  But above and beyond events taking place, you want a change to go on inside a person.  The best books don't have characters who are just moving through events -- they are also growing along the way.  And the best authors know it shouldn't be passive -- audiences like to read about characters whose own choices create changes.
Gracie:  I have one more thing to say.
Dad:  What's that.
Gracie:  I made a linder block out of snow.
Dad:  Yeah, you and Lily and I were playing "Princess Academy" out in the yard.
Gracie:  We made a big block of snow and pretended we were carving a block of linder.  It took a while.  I don't know how the Eskimos do it.
Dad:  You guys were even trying to do quarry speech.
Gracie:  Our neighbor friend was playing too, even though she had no idea what the heck we were talking about.

Miri's academy princess dress, by Gracie

Miri with the rat in her hair, by Lily

hawk carved out of stone, by Isaac

Author: Shannon Hale
Published, 2005: Bloomsbury
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Review #7: Rapunzel's Revenge

Dad:  Today we are reviewing "Rapunzel's Revenge," written by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale.
Isaac (age 10):  That's a lot of Hales!
Gracie (age 8):  I bet they're all in one family.
Dad:  Nope - they're not, because I looked at the back and it says "...Nathan Hale, no relation to Dean or Shannon."
Isaac:  But why is his name Hale then?
Dad:  Just by chance I guess...
Isaac:  It sounds like "hail" from the sky.
Dad:  Do you know what this kind of book is called?
Isaac:  Comic book?
Dad:  They have a fancy name for it now - it's called a Graphic Novel.
Gracie:  I think it's a comic book and a chapter book mixed.
Lily (age 5):  The story is about a girl named Rapunzel.  She lost her real mother, and Gothel said she was a naughty girl --
Gracie:  Gothel traps Rapunzel in a tower.
Lily:  The tower had big, big thorns and it was a giant tree.  When she grew long braids, her hair helped her get out of the tree tower.
Gracie:  Her hair grew really long because she didn't have scissors when she was trapped.  There was also "magic growth" in the tree tower.
Lily:  She has magical hair!  I want hair like that!
Dad:  She used her hair in lots of cool ways, didn't she...
Gracie:  She used it to escape the tower.
Isaac:  She spins things around in it, like flaming torches.
Gracie:  She uses it to fight crime.
Lily:  She's good at tricks now.  Really good.  She practices.
Gracie:  She lassos with it, whips with it, climbs things with it like a rope.
Lily:  She wrapped it right around the water snake's head... actually its neck.
Gracie:  She used it to steer a big evil boar thing.
Dad:  What would you do if you had long braids?
Isaac:  Don't ask me that question.
Gracie:  It would take a whole day to comb it.
Lily:  I would save people from bad things and be just like Rapunzel.
Gracie:  I would lasso my brothers and sisters.  Climb up high places.  Smack bugs.  Kill evil dudes.  Pretty much the same things as Rapunzel.  I would also do lots of fun hairstyles!
Lily:  At the end, Rapunzel looks beautiful when her braids get snipped.
Gracie:  They never told us if her hair would get longer again after that.
Dad:  Well, Mother Gothel's powers were destroyed... so what do you think?
Isaac:  Nope.
Gracie:  Well, if they never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever clipped it again it might get longer.
Dad:  You think a person could grow hair that long without magic?
Gracie:  Maybe if people never clipped their hair from the time they were babies.
Dad:  So Lily, you really think Rapunzel looks better with shorter hair?
Lily:  I love her when her braids are snipped because it looks beautiful.
Dad:  Let's snip your hair...
Lily:  Nooo!  I want long magical hair!
Gracie:  If I got a really really long wig, then I could be Rapunzel!
Dad:  Now, was this book the same as the Rapunzel Story that we are all used to hearing?
Isaac:  No!  All the people are dressed like cowboys.  The original Rapunzel story had knights and things...
Gracie:  But now it's also the Wild West.  And her cowgirl outfit is awesome!
Dad:  So they took a fairytale and a western and mixed them together.
Gracie:  I LOVED "Rapunzel's Revenge"!  The original fairytale left out the coolest parts!
Dad:  Well... the original didn't leave them out.  This is all new.  Nobody had ever thought of all those cool parts until Shannon Hale and Dean Hale made them up.
Gracie:  Thank-you Shannon and Dean!!!
Isaac: What about the third guy?  Who was the third guy?
Gracie:  Thank-you Nathan, Shannon, and Dean!
Lily:  My favorite part was when Rapunzel was fighting the coyotes.  She was swinging the fire all around.
Isaac:  The water snake was really cool.  Nathan Hale did a really good job on it.  It was green and had the fangs of a rattle snake.  And it was giant.
Lily:  The water snake was very, very scary.  I thought Rapunzel would die!
Isaac:  That snake picture - it would have to take months to make.  If you look at it, there's so many little details.  I'm surprised he even finished this picture -- that he didn't give up on it.  It just looks hard to draw.
Lily:  Who was that big bad guy with a green coat and yellow hair?
Gracie:  "Brute."  But he is not a bad guy - he helped her in the end.
Lily:  And he wanted his Mommy!
Isaac:  What was that thing they were riding?  A yak?
Lily:  They were riding a buffalo in a really scary place.
Gracie:  There were no scary beasts when they got to Devil's Armpit!  (Gracie sticks her hand under her armpit and begins pumping out noises)  Pbbt pbbt pbbt pbbt...
Dad:  That's quite a musical pit you have there!
Gracie:  Hahhaahaaa!  A girl from Awana taught me that.
Dad:  Wonderful.
Isaac:  I say the worst place was with the coyotes.
Lily:  Coyotes...  Coyo-yo-yo-yo-teeeee!  Aawoooo!
Gracie:  No - Devil's Armpit was the worst place.  (Armpit noises resume)  Pbbt pbbt pbbt pbbt...  Nothing was alive there, everything was dead - plants were dead, people were dead, beasts were dead, tombstones were everywhere, boneyards... not a very happy place.
Isaac:  Rapunzel has one friend in the book
Gracie:  Two - Jack and the goose...
Lily:  In the ending Rapunzel and Jack kissed!
Gracie:  The ending was romantic -- Woo- oo!
Lily:  They kissed!
Dad:  Any concluding words?
Isaac:  I liked it.  Everyone should read the book.  It'll take an hour though.
Lily:  This book is like a movie.  It has exciting things, and movies have exciting things.
Gracie:  And I still say Devil's Armpit was bad - Everything died.  That's why there were no scary beasts there - everything died.
Dad:  Well, I think you just like saying Armpit.
Gracie's armpit:  Pbbt pbbt pbbt pbbt...
Lily:  At the end they kissed!

Rapunzel, by Gracie

Rapunzel scaling the tree tower, by Lily

Rapunzel spinning flaming torches, by Lily

Rapunzel facing the giant water snake, by Isaac

Authors: Shannon and Dean Hale
Illustrator: Nathan Hale
Published, 2008: Bloomsbury
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