The Goose That Laid the Golden

Usborne First Reading Level 3

by Aesop

BOOKS

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Fairy Tales, Picture Books

Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

About the author

Tradition considers Greek fabulist Aesop (620 BC - 564 BC) as the author of Aesop's Fables , including "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Fox and the Grapes."

This credited ancient man told numerous now collectively known stories. None of his writings, if they ever existed, survive; despite his uncertain existence, people gathered and credited numerous tales across the centuries in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Generally human characteristics of animals and inanimate objects that speak and solve problems characterize many of the tales.

One can find scattered details of his life in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work, called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave (δοῦλος), whose cleverness acquires him freedom as an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name included Esop(e) and Isope. A later tradition, dating from the Middle Ages, depicts Aesop as a black Ethiopian. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last two and a half millennia included several works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs.

Abandoning the perennial image of Aesop as an ugly slave, the movie Night in Paradise (1946) cast Turhan Bey in the role, depicting Aesop as an advisor to Croesus, king; Aesop falls in love with a Persian princess, the intended bride of the king, whom Merle Oberon plays. Lamont Johnson also plays Aesop the Helene Hanff teleplay Aesop and Rhodope (1953), broadcast on hallmark hall of fame.

Brazilian dramatist Guilherme Figueiredo published A raposa e as uvas ("The Fox and the Grapes"), a play in three acts about the life of Aesop, in 1953; in many countries, people performed this play, including a videotaped production in China in 2000 under the title Hu li yu pu tao or 狐狸与葡萄 .

Beginning in 1959, animated shorts under the title Aesop and Son recurred as a segment in the television series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, its successor. People abandoned the image of Aesop as ugly slave; Charles Ruggles voiced Aesop, a Greek citizen, who recounted for the edification of his son, Aesop Jr., who then delivered the moral in the form of an atrocious pun. In 1998, Robert Keeshan voiced him, who amounted to little more than a cameo in the episode "Hercules and the Kids" in the animated television series Hercules.

In 1971, Bill Cosby played him in the television production Aesop's Fables.

British playwright Peter Terson first produced the musical Aesop's Fables in 1983. In 2010, Mhlekahi Mosiea as Aesop staged the play at the Fugard theatre in Cape Town, South Africa.

Reviews

[Prabhjot Kaur]

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs is a retelling of one of Aesop's fables. Aesop's fables always have a moral, a lesson in the end and these made a huge part of my childhood. This is a good retelling and it is a classic story about not to be greedy otherwise you might lose everything. A good short story with fun pictures but parent/guardian discretion is needed as in one picture they cut open the goose.

4 stars

[Loanne Cheng]

Mackinnon, Mairi. The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs (2006). Howarth, Daniel - illustrator. In this retold Aesop’s story, Tom and Elena, are farmers who are poor but have all that they needed to live. One day, as Tom went about collecting eggs from the hen shed, he found a golden egg. He took it to the goldsmith and was able to sell it to get extra money where he purchased a dress for Elena. Every day, Tom would collect a golden egg from the white goose and sell it to get extra money. Tom and Elena became rich, buying everything they wanted and building a bigger house and having servants. However, greed overtook the couple and they wanted more and more. So, they killed the goose, realized that there are no golden eggs inside the goose, and ended with nothing, no more golden eggs to sell. The element of killing the goose will need to be addressed with younger readers. With full-page illustrations of pastel colors, the drawings are closely related to the story. Large text on every page with colorful illustrations that concretely shows the meanings for young children to comprehend. This hardcover 48-paged Aesop’s fable teaches the lesson of greediness and learning to appreciate what you have. A good moral to teach young children. Target audience: ages 6-9.

[Hm]

Sooo goood this is she end of stupid💝💝💝💝

[zhanghao]

The desire for something for nothing breeds insatiable greed.

[Sam Smerbeck]

Title: The Goose that laid the Golden Eggs
Author: Mairi Mackinnon
Illustrator: Daniel Howarth
Genre: Aesop Fable
Theme(s): Don’t be greedy or you might lose everything!
Opening Line/Sentence: This story is about Tom, Elena, a little white goose, a goat, some hens, and a goldsmith.
Brief Book Summary: Characters Tom and Elena are very poor but they have everything that they need. One morning their white goose lays a golden egg and Tom quickly spends it on a new dress for Elena. Every morning after that the goose continues to lay a golden egg and Tom and Elena begin spending all of their money. Eventually they get so caught up in greed that they kill the goose thinking it is made of gold, but it was not. They go back to being poor because they let greed control them.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Liz Waterland (Books for Keeps No. 52, September 1988) 
Apart from the natural desire of the children to sue the publishers of this book under the Trades Descriptions Act (real golden eggs, indeed!) and my wanting to take issue with them over the suggested age range (3 to 6 is too young for the complexity of this tale) this is a lovely book. A faithful retelling of Aesop's fable with very attractive illustrations, apparently done in pastel and ink on brown wrapping paper, this was much liked by 6 and 7 year olds. They were old enough to discuss the moral and motivation of the farmer and his wife, and to feel the waste of the poor goose's end. The story reads aloud well and is written clearly enough for children to read themselves with the interest of the occasional challenge to their vocabulary, particularly 'curious', 'spritely' and 'hoarding'. Category: Infant/Junior. . ...., Picture Piper, 2.50. Ages 5 to 8. 
(PUBLISHER: Piper Books, PUBLISHED: 1988.) 
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
For every parent, child and teacher weary of the monotony of the average reading scheme, Usborne’s First Reading series will offer rays of sunlight. The books are carefully levelled and offer a huge variety of accessible and fun, fiction and non-fiction.
Tamara Linke (Proprietor, Tales on Moon Lane Bookshop)
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
Both reviews speak about how much the children will enjoy reading this book. The first review is very critiquing in that the way the book was produced and the illustrations were done well for the age range and how some children may be too young to fully understand the morals portrayed in the book.
Evaluation of Literary Elements:
The format of the book is very easy to follow and the vocab words are very easy. The pictures portray the story quite well . The only part that may be graphic for the kids is the actual killing of the goose.
Consideration of Instructional Application:
This would be a great read aloud book followed by an activity that examines why greed is bad and why we should find joy and content with what we already have instead of what we don’t have.

[Catherine Clarke]

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs by Mairi Mackinnon is the classic retelling of the popular fable.
The two main characters Tom and Elena are not rich by any means however their goose starts laying golden eggs and greed gets the best of both of the characters. In the end, their greed leads to the demise of the goose. The strengths of this story is would be the overall moral of the story, being greedy does not have a great outcome. Also, the illustrations of this short story help bring the story to life. The target audience for this book would be k-3. Overall I would recommend this book because of the life lesson it provides.

[Kedra Collins]

I very much agree with the moral of this story, "greed gets nothing but loses everything." The man with the goose that laid golden eggs only cared about the gold and riches that he was receiving; he no longer cared about the goose itself and killed it simply out of greed in order to obtain all of the golden eggs at once. However, there were obviously no golden eggs inside the belly of the goose so he lost both the golden eggs and the goose that laid them.

[Kim Gong]

nothing

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