Fiction - Animals, Children - Fiction & Literature

Silly Suzy Goose

Name: Silly Suzy Goose
Author: Petr Horacek
ISBN: 9780763630409

by Petr Horacek

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Overview

Simple, boldly colored, and energetic, Petr Horacek's illustrations follow the story of a silly goose in search of a brand-new style - at least some of the time.

Silly Suzy Goose is just like all the other geese. But how she wishes she could hang upside-down like a bat or stretch up high like a giraffe! And wouldn't it be wonderful to jump, jump, JUMP like a kangaroo? Suzy Goose wanders farther and farther from her flock, visiting with animals that are very different from her. But when Suzy meets up with a cranky lion, she learns there may just be some advantages to blending in with the crowd!

Synopsis

Child Magazine

Sigh. Suzy Goose longs to stand out among a flock of identical white geese. She muses, "If I was a bat, I could hang upside down and flap my wings." Alas, those webbed feet just don't cut it, she realizes, while dangling precariously from a branch. She has another idea, but her faux roar prompts an annoyed lion to chase her back to the flock, where she thankfully blends into the crowd. Hor ùcek's large, bright illustrations exude energy and humor. And lest you think this is a lesson in conformity, Suzy does get the last word: "RROARRHONK!" (Ages 2 to 4)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2006

About the Author, Petr Horacek

PETR HORACEK is a Czech illustrator and painter whose previous books include RUN MOUSE, RUN!; BIRD FLY HIGH; A NEW HOUSE FOR MOUSE; STRAWBERRIES ARE RED; and WHEN THE MOON SMILED. About SILLY SUZY GOOSE, he says, "Suzy Goose is a goose like any other, but she is not quite happy about it. This book is about what Suzy Goose learns on her way to 'being different.' " Petr Horacek trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and then worked as a graphic designer before moving to England, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

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Editorials

From The Critics

Sigh. Suzy Goose longs to stand out among a flock of identical white geese. She muses, "If I was a bat, I could hang upside down and flap my wings." Alas, those webbed feet just don't cut it, she realizes, while dangling precariously from a branch. She has another idea, but her faux roar prompts an annoyed lion to chase her back to the flock, where she thankfully blends into the crowd. Hor‡ùcek's large, bright illustrations exude energy and humor. And lest you think this is a lesson in conformity, Suzy does get the last word: "RROARRHONK!" (Ages 2 to 4)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2006

Publishers Weekly

Birds of a feather may flock together, but Suzy Goose is sick and tired of it: "I wish I could be different, she thought." Her species envy leads her to a series of improbable, comical encounters with animals big and small: she hangs upside-down with a velvety brown bat, gets a piggyback ride from an ostrich and swims with a seal. Horacek, working in mixed-media and cut-paper collage, sticks to cleanly outlined, relatively simple shapes, but his energized textures bring to mind Eric Carle's work: the ostrich's feathers fan out in a flurry of white and black brushstrokes that evoke an almost palpable downiness, while the seal's mostly submerged body seems to melt into a murky green sea. Suzy finally pushes her luck too far when she tries to rouse a magnificent orange lion with an aspirational "Rroarrhonk!" (Hor cek amusingly zooms in on the lion's perturbed face), but she manages to make it back to her gaggle with her spunk intact. The text may be bare-bones ("If I was an ostrich, I could run really fast"), but the poster-like impact of the pictures, combined with Suzy's featherbrained adventure scheme, should strike a chord with young audiences. Ages 2-5. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

Suzy Goose would like to be different in some way from all the other geese around her. She thinks of all the things she could do if she were something else, from hanging upside down as a bat to squawking as a toucan, or splashing like an elephant to jumping like a kangaroo. When she thinks about roaring like a lion, however, right under a lion's nose, the lion does not like it "at all." Suzy tries all the activities of the other creatures she has admired to get away from him as fast as she can. "Just in time," she joins all the other geese, so the lion can't tell her from the others. Sometimes it is better not to be different, she thinks, but her final "but not always" leaves open the possibility of more adventures. The simple, repetitive text printed in large, assertive type, offers the artist a delightful excuse to use mixed media for page-size pictures of the inquisitive goose and her encounters. The text forms part of the page designs, adding the final comic touch as Suzy's "Rroarrrhonk!" stimulates the dramatic chase and, at the end, her expression of individuality. 2006, Candlewick Press, Ages 3 to 6.
—Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Suzy Goose would like to be different in some way from all the other geese around her. She thinks of all the things she could do if she were something else, from hanging upside down as a bat to squawking as a toucan, or splashing like an elephant to jumping like a kangaroo. When she thinks about roaring like a lion, however, right under a lion's nose, the lion does not like it "at all." Suzy tries all the activities of the other creatures she has admired to get away from him as fast as she can. "Just in time" she joins all the other geese so the lion cannot tell her from the others. Sometimes it is better not to be different, she thinks, but her final "but not always" leaves open the possibility of more adventures. The simple, repetitive text printed in large, assertive type offers the artist a delightful excuse to use mixed media for pictures of the inquisitive goose and her encounters. The text forms part of the page designs, adding the final comic touch as Suzy's "Rroarrrhonk!" stimulates the dramatic chase and, at the end, her expression of individuality. Repackaged for younger readers, this amusing story is now available as a board book. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1-Suzy Goose looks around and wishes she could be different. The first spread justifies her problem as it is impossible to identify her in the sea of duplicate geese. In those that follow, she visits other animals and samples ways to be different. "If I was a giraffe, I could STRETCH up high." "If I was an ostrich, I could RUN really fast." Pages of "If I was" instead of "If I were" will drive grammar purists crazy, but the scratchy mixed-media illustrations of Suzy trying out each animal's persona and environment make the spreads tactile and pleasurable. When she encounters a lion, she tries a roar ("Rroarrhonk!"), which enrages him. Using some of the moves picked up along the way, the goose hurries back to the safety of the other geese. The close call convinces her that a group has its advantages, but she continues to stand out with her "Rroarrhonk!" Animal movements and sounds, along with the large, bright pictures and interesting compositions, make this an attractive choice to share with young audiences.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Suzy Goose looks like all the other geese, but she wishes she could be different. "If I was a bat, I could hang upside down and FLAP my wings." "If I was a penguin, I could slip and SLIDE." For each creature that she wishes she could be-toucan, giraffe (vertical spread), elephant, ostrich, seal-she mimics its characteristic action or sound. When she ROARHONKS at a cranky lion, he doesn't like it and chases her. Suzy isn't totally silly. She uses all of the movement styles of the animals she's met-running, splashing, sliding-and gets back just in time to the flock-where she's camouflaged by all the other geese. Attractive mixed-media illustrations, and a well-designed cover, utilize bright colors, textures and size contrasts to energize the spare shapes. A wry twist on the familiar theme of wanting to be different, Suzy isn't such a silly goose after all, though it would have been nice if the text had used the subjunctive properly. (Picture book. 3-5)