Gooney The Fabulous Book Review

Gooney The Fabulous By Lois Lowry

Gooney The Fabulous Book Review - Reviewed by Kidzworld on Apr 17, 2009

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Gooney The Fabulous is a brand-new book from award-winning children’s and young adult author Lois Lowry – one of our fave writers of all time! Lowry’s other titles (there are more than 30 of them in total!) include The Giver, Gossamer and Zooman Sam

The Author

Who’s Gooney?

There’s never been anyone like Gooney Bird Greene at Watertower Elementary School. What other new second grader comes to school wearing PJs and cowboy boots one day, and a polka-dot t-shirt and tutu the next? Gooney has to sit right smack-dab in the middle of the class because she loves to be in the very centre of everything that’s happening and keeps her teacher and classmates on the edge of their seats.

The Book

Gooney The Fabulous isn’t a very long read – it’s under 100 pages and includes 12 chapters, as well as very cute black-and-white illustrations (in the paperback version). The drawings were done by an illustrator called Middy Thomas.

In this cool new book, Gooney gets a fabulous idea to turn a normal lesson into something totally fun when her teacher, Mrs. Pidgeon, reads Aesop’s Fables to the class.

What’s A Fable?

A fable is a special type of story. The characters are usually animals who have certain human characteristics. That is, they talk to each other, feel and do things like people do. Each fable has an important moral – or lesson – to it. Each story teaches you something important about life.

Gooney’s Fabulous Idea

So how does Gooney suggest Mrs. Pidgeon make the lesson about fables more exciting than just reading them from a book? Her idea is that every student in the class creates his or her own, original fable and tells it or presents it to the rest of the class. The class loves it and, one by one, Mrs. Pidgeon’s Grade 2 students create costumes and stories and morals and excitement. Everyone except one of Gooney’s classmates – a boy named Nicholas. Why is Nicholas so unhappy? Leave it to Gooney, of course, to help him solve his problem in, of course, a truly fabulous way!

Other Great Gooney Books

If you read this book and love it (and we know you will), you’ll want to pick up the other books in the Gooney series by Lois Lowry:

Gooney Bird Greene: This is the first of the three Gooney books. In this story, Gooney is not only the new kid in second grade, but she’s also the star of story time in Mrs. Pidgeon’s classroom. She keeps the teacher and her classmates on the edge of their seats with her “absolutely true” stories. But what about her classmates? Do they have good enough stories to share?

Gooney Bird And The Room Mother: In this book, Gooney, who still loves to be right in the thick of things, wants to play the lead role in her class’s Thanksgiving pageant. But the role is promised to the student who can find someone to be the room mother. All the parents are so busy, no one has time to bring cupcakes to the play. Gooney comes to the rescue, but she won’t reveal who she’s recruited to be room mother until the end of the play. Will the mystery room mother really show up?

Gooney The Fabulous Rating:

Related Stories:

The Giver Book Review

Gossamer Book Review

Zooman Sam Book Review

Tween & Teen Books About Orphans