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Usborne Phonics Readers

Goose on the Loose

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When Goose takes a wild ride on a runaway scooter she has many close calls with her animal neighbors.

Board Book

First published June 29, 2001

6 people are currently reading
133 people want to read

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Phil Roxbee Cox

74 books23 followers

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5 stars
85 (31%)
4 stars
75 (27%)
3 stars
90 (33%)
2 stars
18 (6%)
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Baby Adam.
51 reviews
October 16, 2017
Goose on the loose is lots of fun. I love the rhyming and the goose being silly. It was made especially fun having a big silly gosling read this to me! His name is Lance, and he's not so fussed about bread, but he loves books and chocolate oranges and mushrooms. The book was chosen out from the libaby by Little. Good find, Little! <3
Profile Image for Igor.
596 reviews19 followers
November 8, 2021
Too short. Nice drawing. My son remmembered the phrase, not in the book: "get out of the way!"
Profile Image for Lance.
244 reviews7 followers
October 17, 2017
"She a goose on the loose. 'Get out of my way!'"

A fun short read from Oxford Central library, chosen with the erudite assistance of new reader Little, and already given the seal of approval by my beloved Baby Adam. The title and the cover picture had me - a characterisation of the noisy, blustery nature of geese. I also loved the playful phonetic pun with the dual meaning of "HONK" as the natural sound a goose makes and the sound of Goose's horn on the front of her scooter.
The rhyming structure was charming and thorough. I particularly enjoyed the embedded structural devices in addition to the rhymes at the ends of lines, the rhythm of the book was really brought alive by the alliteration ("Rooster Ron") and the introduction of more and more half-line rhymes accelerated the pace to a dynamic conclusion! ("shock a flock was my personal favourite). A fun bedtime story and a colourful first read well aimed at 4-6 year olds (and my husband Adam). The illustrations are minimalistic, soft-edged and charming. Particularly Goose. She is a star.

Although there is division amongst educational psychologists concerning the efficacy of a synthetic phonics based early reading scheme for young children learning to read English, one advantage is that it remains one of the most broadly taught methods in schools, so familiarity with phonics will help most children in the UK get ahead at school. The phonics scheme is based on learning to read by sounding words out and memorising irregulars as they are encountered. This method has its critics, who believe that the lack of focus on the structural similarities between irregulars is not being taught, therefore giving young children more exceptions to memorise than is necessary (Adams, 1994; Levy, 2009), and phonologically dyslexic children receive minimal help this method when attempting to review their own writing (Snowling, 1981), the method remains the most intuitive and popular early reading scheme in the UK. Perhaps it will still be helpful when the more comprehensive THRASS reading scheme (Davies and Ritchie, 1998; Callinan, 2010) which broadens the available phonemes becomes more popular. As a psychologist, Goose on the Loose needs further data collection in dyslexic pupils. As a lover of geese, it's great.

I know you really enjoyed this one, Baby Adam, so I've typed out the story in full so that you can enjoy it any time you like. <3

" Goose is on a scooter. She can't stay and play
She's a goose on the loose. 'Get out of my way!'
HONK
She almost runs down Rooster Ron.
'Get out of my way!' Goose goes scooting on.
HONK. HONK.
Goose is scooting to Ted's shed
'Look out behind you. Watch out, Ted!'
Ted ends up in his flower bed.
Goose goes scooting down the road.
She almost scoots right into Toad.
Toad groans and drops a heavy load.
The cows all moo. The doves all coo.
HONK! HONK!
The brown owl says, 'too-wit-too-woo'.
Now Goose is heading for the zoo.
Look out! Goose is on the loose.
She upsets a bunch of kangaroos and shocks a flock of cockatoos.
There are shouts of 'hiss' and 'boo'.
Then snarls and howls and a hullabaloo.
'Goose must be stopped. What shall we do?'
But Goose has stopped, and feel a fool.
She's landed in the penguin pool.
"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Nicola.
3,655 reviews
May 15, 2019
Miss 4 prefers this earlier set of Usborne phonics with the fold-out flaps and a focus on a specific phonic sound throughout the text.

Miss 4 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.
Profile Image for Chiara.
58 reviews
February 4, 2022
For Young Children.

Great book for early readers (ages 3+), and part of the Usborne Phonics Readers series.
It's the story of a goose recklessly riding a scooter, thus sowing turmoil around its neighborhood.
The book is filled with rhymes and animals; I'm sure young children will enjoy both aspects. Good for learning new words, too.

The illustrations are simple and funny.

There's a little game in this series: the child has to find a little yellow duck hidden in each page.
Profile Image for Viviane Elbee.
Author 5 books60 followers
August 3, 2017
This is a fun story for beginner readers with amusing, kid-friendly illustrations. Despite being an easy reader with words that new readers can sound out, it also has some original vocabulary choices (snarls, cockatoo, coo, hullabaloo).

The "Toad Makes a Road" book, by the same author, is in the same series as this one.
Profile Image for Debra.
2,074 reviews11 followers
September 21, 2017
These Usborne phonics readers are bright and attractive with a fun flip out pages. This book is all about the "oo" sound. A fun, fun story. Back of the book give a vocabulary list and notes the words that do not follow the phonics rules. (Drat the fact the the English language has so many exceptions.)
Profile Image for Lev.
100 reviews1 follower
November 5, 2020
I liked that the Goose didn't stop and made a very big hullabaloo but it learned its lesson and landed in an ice-cold penguin pool.
Profile Image for Kimberly.
770 reviews38 followers
May 7, 2025
A rude goose runs everyone off the road, causing havok, and eventually tumbles into a pond. Scooter and all.
Profile Image for John.
28 reviews
May 14, 2025
We found the duck on every page!
Profile Image for Boom!.
247 reviews2 followers
March 2, 2017
Appropriate book for early readers.
Profile Image for Danie Cutter.
179 reviews2 followers
July 24, 2011
Great book, easy words for children learning to read. Like the fact that while it uses phonics there are also "patterns" for the words eg Goose and Loose so is suited to pattern recognition methods of learning to read as well.

Have bought the whole series as daughter loves these. While the words are simple there's still enough of a story/action to keep her interested (just) while too many early reading books are three word sentences, one sentence per page and only a few pages per book.

This set of books is top of the learn to read books we've come across so far.
Profile Image for Erin.
953 reviews24 followers
December 31, 2013
I have heard really good things about Usborne books and saw a stack of these at a garage sale and so I bought them for my toddler. They are billed as "easy readers" and contain a phonics guide for parents that I don't even pay attention to, but could be helpful if I was teaching my son about phonetics. The pictures are colorful and the words rhyme. But, I have found that every story is rather dumb and some of the stories don't even make sense. I do plan on keeping these for when he starts reading because they do use words that are easy to read. Just wish the story was better.
Profile Image for Alyssa Ruehl.
41 reviews1 follower
February 26, 2015
This book is an extremely easy read. It would be good for early readers in pre-school. The words are short, and there are pronunciations of all the words in the back. The story is quick and easy to follow, the goose rides his scooter around and runs into certain people. There is not a clear message to the story, just a simple story that works on children's reading abilities. This would be a great independent read because the children would be able to say and read these words if they were in their early stages of learning how to read.
Profile Image for Jennifer Park.
65 reviews1 follower
October 1, 2013
A cute book about a goose is on the loose on a scooter and passes by other animals knocking the by. They also try to stop the goose.
Kids will like how silly it is and will be interested in it. They can learn rhyming words and increase their phonemic awareness.
Profile Image for Sarah Ashburn.
105 reviews
June 23, 2015
This was a cute book. I really liked how goose was on the loose. These phonics books not only teach young readers phonics but it also could be a great animal study. Good read and I feel that new readers would enjoy it greatly.
Profile Image for Lynn  Davidson.
8,285 reviews36 followers
February 18, 2025
Goose was in a big hurry on her scooter and upset a lot of her friends along her way. They want to stop her, but Goose brings her rush to an end on her own. Funny ending for this fun rhyming story. Great illustrations.
Profile Image for Jolene.
254 reviews7 followers
February 3, 2010
Part of the Usborne phonics series. Like the flip-flap structure of the book. Although I wish the text ryhmed to make it easier for read alouds.
Profile Image for Natalie.
28 reviews
August 13, 2014
Not my little ones favourite book from the series but it's a bit of fun all the same.
I must add that it read it to her she doesn't read it herself.
Profile Image for Tranylle.
958 reviews1 follower
April 7, 2016
Cute, silly rhyming book. Fun pictures and a few flaps to open.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews

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