Little Goose's Autumn

By Author / Illustrator

Elli Woollard, Briony May Smith

Genre

Picture Books

Age range(s)

Publisher

Pan Macmillan

ISBN

9781509807970

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

03-09-2020

Synopsis

Little Goose's Autumn is a second stunning story from an exciting picture book pairing and the uplifting tale of a lively young goose finding her place in the world.

As summer fades to autumn, a lively young goose feels a change in the air and senses she has something important to do - but what? The beavers are chopping wood, the squirrels are storing nuts in the ground and the bears are busy building a den. The plucky little goose tries to join in, but without great success. She realizes her wings weren't built for chopping wood, or burying food, or building a den, but they were built for something magnificent - they were built for flight . . .

A beautiful, lyrical and hopeful story about finding your wings and your place in the world. Written by star picture book author, Elli Woollard with wonderful illustrations by rising talent, Briony May Smith, whose artwork brings an autumnal landscape of mountains and forests to life with truly breathtaking beauty.

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Reviews

As summer fades to autumn, the little goose feels that there is something that she needs to do. But what is it? With suggestions from her friends - beaver, squirrel and bear - about how they prepare for the change in seasons, she realises that these preparations are not for her.

She waddles away to hide, feeling lost and insecure, when she hears the wind call her.. Or was it? Suddenly a shadow looms overhead. Was it a beast? A monster? Terrified of what is to come, little goose looks up to see.. Not a monster, or a beast, but many birds just like her flying overhead. Finally she realises what she needs to do. Promising to return in the spring, she says goodbye to her friends, lifts her head high and flies to join all the other geese migrating to the south where the air warms their wings, even in winter!

This is a lovely tale with endless learning opportunities. Lots of opportunity for enquiry and play based learning can arise from this book, and is a great introduction to harvest and autumn. It's seasonal theme lends it perfectly to many learning objectives in EYFS and KS1 with; weather, seasons, change, habitats, animals and colour mixing being a few.

Every page has delightful, detailed illustrations to support the understanding of the story through visual contexts, whilst also adding extra exploration to the story - What is rabbit going to do to prepare for winter? Why are the leaves orange? This story will get everyone feeling autumnal and ready to cosy up with blankets and a mug of hot chocolate!

Picture book / Ages 4+ / Reviewed by Maria Faithorn, teacher