Who's a goose? by Scott Stuart

Serious Bruce and silly-billy Bill are two geese with very different characteristics. A few minutes spent looking at the end papers before the book is read will encourage readers to pick out the differences between the pair. And set the tone of the book about to be read and enjoyed. And there is lots to enjoy.

The rhyming text asks the readers to predict the rhyming word, calling out what they think the word may be, involving themselves in the words of the story. They will learn lots of words about animals, singular and plural, and laugh at the idiosyncracies of the English language, where more than one goose is geese, where-as more than one mouse is not meese, but mice. Our language is full of contradictions and they will cause readers to be involved and alert to the differences.

We follow the antics of the pair of geese as they tell the readers what the plural term is for a variety of animals. But when they reach a fox, this animal turns around to look at the geese as his next meal. Flustered, the geese call on all their friends to help mollify the fox, and it is then the readers will learn the word for a group of geese.

The digitally created illustrations are luminous in their effect, the many hues exciting the imagination. And the funny characters on each page will cause gales of laughter as the readers recognise each animal and see what they re doing.

Themes: Animals, Plurals, Words, Humour.

Fran Knight