[.ca] The Golden Goose (ISBN 0779113454)

Amazon.ca:
Celebrated children's book artist Barbara Reid gives a famous fairy tale an environmental twist in her hilarious picture book The Golden Goose. Set in a northern Canadian town, this exuberant retelling of the Brothers Grimm story about a simpleton and his sticky bird mixes up traditional and contemporary elements in a way that is sure to bring out the grins in 4- to 7-year-olds. In Reid's hands, the king of the original fairy tale becomes a cheesy car salesman "by the name of Leroy King" who can't understand why his nature-loving daughter is so unhappy. (After all, he just gave her her own personal parking lot, complete with turreted garage.) Instead of the Grimms' simpleton, Reid offers Rupert, the sensitive youngest brother in a family of coarse woodcutters. Like the car lot king's misunderstood "Princess," Rupert would much rather converse with birds and frogs than chop down their habitat. The chain of events (or rather people) that brings these two soulmates together is made even funnier by Reid's wry attention to detail in her remarkable Plasticine illustrations for The Golden Goose. Among the motley crew of gold-seekers she depicts hanging off Rupert's magic goose are two "innkeeper's daughters" in frilly retro waitress uniforms, an eccentric old lady who collects lawn art, and a breakfasting bus driver with a napkin tucked into his blue collar. There's always something new to find in these richly textured pictures--like Rupert pulling up a paving stone to water the earth with his rubber boot or the pair of green frogs that follow him into town. The Golden Goose is another gem in the crown for the creator of such acclaimed picture books as The Party and Two by Two. --Lisa Alward