GOONEY BIRD GREENE
By Lois Lowry
Illustrated by Middy Thomas
Houghton Mifflin, 200
Category: Elementary grade fiction
From my almost-six year old: “A kid named Gooney Bird Greene? Is it a boy or a girl kid? Will you read it to me, please, please, please?”
Turns out Gooney Bird Greene is a girl … and she tells spectacular stories. So spectacular, in fact, that everyone assumes she makes them up. For example, “How Gooney Bird Came from China on a Flying Carpet” sounds like a made-up story, doesn’t it? But Gooney Bird insists her stories are “all absolutely true.” Her second grade teacher, Mrs. Pidgeon, presses the issue, because, after all, she cannot have her second graders believing in trips from China on a flying carpet! But readers soon discover that the remarkable Gooney Bird did come from China on a flying carpet. And she did direct a symphony orchestra. And her beloved cat was actually consumed by a cow.
Gooney Bird is flashy and over-the-top, she is the most self-assured second grader I have ever met, and she has a way with people. It took me a few chapters to be sure, but I like Gooney Bird Greene. I like what she has to say about storytelling and patience and language. And assumptions. I especially like what Gooney Bird had to say about those.
My daughter has added the sequels, GOONEY BIRD AND THE ROOM MOTHER and GOONEY THE FABULOUS to our summer reading list. I’m game; I love good stories!