The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

              I tutor in the library at school, and every time I come across a student who enjoys reading I pick their brains for good books to read. One of my clients suggested that I read the children’s novel The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. I’m so glad I did.

              This book took me back to my childhood, because it was exactly like the stories that I enjoyed reading as a little girl. It was simply a fairytale. Shannon Hale is apparently known for taking fairy tales that are not well known and embellishing them into good, clean stories for children. The Goose Girl was actually a story written by the Brothers Grimm, but I must say I like Shannon Hale’s version much better. 

                I think that one of the reasons that I enjoyed Shannon Hale’s story so much was her ability to produce beautiful narration. Let me just give you a couple of examples of passages that caught my breath (and believe me there were many): 

                Ani looked toward the stream and held a branch of her beech tree as she might hold a hand. The river birches were leafing brilliant – hundreds of thin, gold coins dangling from their arms. It was perfect as though their green leaves had been a falsehood all those months and just now the trees showed their realness, their pure autumnal yellows. Ani felt a stirring, a hope, a winged thing waking up in her chest and brushing her heart with its feathers. 

and

                It was not a game of young warrior testing their strength or a match of pride, but a bout of death, each warrior watching his opponent’s eyes, fighting to end that life, their swords desperate vessels of their will. With each blow the other hoped to meet flesh, and each blow brought sword on sword, and the clanging was a wicked rhythm. 

                I’m such a nerd, but I just couldn’t help but love how beautifully this book was written; it kind of made me want to cry when it was over. But guess what? There’s a sequel! And I’ve got it sitting on my shelf!

 There are three languages: the language of people-speaking, the language of animal-speaking, and the language of nature-speaking (but nobody knows how to talk to nature anymore). Ani is the princess of Kildenree, but she thinks she is an awful ruler, because she does not have the language of people-speaking like her commanding queen mother or her controlling lady-in-waiting Selia. Ani is very different from others because she has the gift of animal-speaking which is nearly non-existent. Ani is particularly fond of talking to birds and horses. However, horses are quite difficult as you must hear them whisper their true names after they are born to be able to talk to them. Since, most people are resilient to different; Ani’s mother tries to smother Ani’s abilities by keeping her locked away inside the palace and away from the animals that Ani dearly loves to talk to. After Ani’s father dies, she is forced by her mother to go to their rival country Bayern to marry the Prince to make peace between the two countries. 

                On the way to Bayern, Ani is betrayed and overthrown by Selia, her lady in waiting. Ani escapes to the capitol city in Bayern and watches as Selia struts in and claims to be the princess. Ani is unsure of what to do since she does not have the gift of people-speaking and is not manipulative like Selia is. Therefore, Ani begins to work for the king and tend to his geese; waiting for the right moment to make her case known. Along the way Ani learns to stand up for hers, how to connect with people, and how to love another person. 

                I can’t emphasize enough how clean and good this book was. I would recommend this book for girls (and boys if they’ll read a book about a princess) 10 and up.