The Goose GirlReview posted June 10, 2025.
Blackstone Audio, 2012. 10 hours, 16 minutes.
Review written June 3, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2003 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#1 Young Adult Fantasy, My Favorite Book of the Year
In honor of #Sonderbooks25, my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks, I've been revisiting my earlier reviews. My plan was to reread one book from each year's Sonderbooks Stand-outs, and I'd decided to reread one for 2003 that I hadn't read again in all that time - and then I did a search of the library's eaudiobook collection - and found I simply had to give this favorite a listen. I'm also writing new reviews for the ones I reviewed before my "new" format in 2006 and when I added the blog.
And what a treat! This audiobook is a lavish production of a wonderful story. Every character who speaks gets their own voice actor, and there are musical cues throughout, reflecting the mood.
I've always loved fairy tale adaptations, and this is one of my all-time favorites. It makes sense of the original fairy tale and answers some questions. Why did the princess allow her lady-in-waiting to steal her identity? Why did they hang her horse's head over the city gate? How did she make the wind drive the goose boy's hat away so he wouldn't bother her?
I love the way Shannon Hale shows growth in the princess Ani's character. She starts out overawed by her mother and all too aware of her own inadequacies. Both Ani's mother and her lady-in-waiting have a magical gift that helps them persuade people - a gift that Ani completely lacks. But over the course of the book, Ani learns the gifts she does have and the power she holds. When out of necessity she lives as a goose girl - she gets to know the working people of her new country - and gains a reason beyond herself to speak up and win back her crown.
This book began a whole series of the Books of Bayern, and so many reviews of Shannon Hale books that I gave them a webpage of their own. It still has a special place in my heart as the book that helped me discover the magic of Shannon Hale's writing.