"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.
"