Poor Shannon Hale. I think the most frequent comment I've heard about her as an author is, "She's LDS and like Stephenie Meyer, doesn't write LDS fiction." I'm not sure it was a good enough reason to check out her book, Goose Girl, but I did it anyway. My sister, Jen, liked this book and that was one more reason, but a good enough one for me.It was a nice break from some of the meatier stuff I've been reading. It's not meatless, exactly, but written as a fairy tale in the voice of a young princess so it's about as meaty as Chicken Noodle Soup. There are some worthwhile themes throughout the book. Ambition, gifts, honesty, work. The princess, whose name was blessedly shortened to Ani for most of the book, lacks the power of persuasion that her mother, the Queen, possesses. The author calls this gift "People Speaking" and while Ani doesn't possess that particular gift, she does possess the rarer, and less esteemed "Animal Speaking" and later "Nature Speaking" gifts. She can talk to swans, as a girl, and later, while in hiding when her lady-in-waiting pulls a coup during their journey to meet her betrothed, learns to speak to the geese she keeps. Ultimately, she uses these gifts, especially her ability to talk with wind, to restore her place as Crown Princess, leaving us with the lesson that we can rely on the gifts we possess to accomplish what is necessary. I think. At least, that's what I'm taking away from it. A la....To Thine Own Self Be True without all the fancy talk.Those elements create the fairy tale, as well as all the prince and princess stuff, but this felt surprisingly modern to me. There were times the dialogue seemed appropriate to the time of the story, but most of the time, I heard the voices of young, spoiled American teens in my head, especially when the ruthless Selia spoke. In any light, Goose Girl is an easy read, with some sound moral backbone - as fairy tales usually have, but isn't incredible literature - as fairy tales usually aren't. But sometimes, it's nice to simply read a good story. Goose Girl is that.

This book is impossibly sweet and wonderful. I'm only sorry it took me so long to read it!

4 stars! Ani is a young princess with a unique gift, she can speak animal languages. From a very young age she learned to speak to the swans in the pond and forged a beautiful connection with a horse foul, Falada. When her father, the king, dies, Ani learns from her mother that she is to be sent off to a neighboring kingdom to be wed to their prince. Along the journey, Anis handmaid Selia leads a coup and gets half of Anis soldiers to turn against her. Ani flees for her life, and when she finally reaches the kingdom she finds that Selia has assumed her identity, and has all of the guards on her side. Ani becomes the palace goose girl, and she hides in the castle hoping to earn enough money to return homeThis book started out very slowly, I had to work hard to get to the point where the plot was moving quickly. It took about 100 pages in until the plot became clear as to where it was going. Once Ani reaches her new kingdom is where the story gets really interesting. She is placed in a new land without any allies and must figure out how to survive. Through the kindness of others, Ani manages to get healthy again, and find a job where she makes new friends. This is a heroine who perseveres when bad things kept happening to her instead of falling apart. Ani is a great role model for young girls because she learned from her experiences and did not give up, she was kind to other people even when they werent that nice to her. When finding herself destitute she got a job and earned money instead of turning to others to do it for her or by other less honorable means. This story is a classic case of the good girl wins and the spoiled misbehaving girl loses, a message meant to teach children to be kind and tell the truth and good things will come to you. The romance was sweet and very clean, but not the central point of the story. The most important factor was Anis journey of self-discovery and how she became her own person once her princess title was stripped from her. A great fantasy book, and perfect for tween girls.Thanks again to Feifei for all of the great tween recs! :)

I picked this book up a few years ago, read it, promptly forgot about it, and then rediscovered it in my bookshelf. To be quite honest with everyone, I didn't think I'd like this book. It is a fairy tale retelling, and the story didn't promise to be a very good one. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I really loved this story and the characters.Since I am a huge fan of fairy tales, I was worried that Hale wouldn't have done a very good job at writing out a story that was inspired by the fairy tale of the same name. I found that I fell in love with the characters, the story line, the storytelling, and the way the book was written. It was definitely magical to see how Hale managed to breathe life into a fairy tale.I definitely enjoyed going on this adventure with Ani. I am not entirely certain if I am interested in reading the second book in this series, but I am going to keep the first book on my bookshelf and will continue to read at my pleasure.

December 21-22, 2015This book is sooooo fantastic! I love it!June 17-19, 2014I freaking love this book!!!December 24, 2010 - January 2, 2011Not sure what else to say about this book beyond, "Wow! It's awesome!". I mean, I've read it SEVERAL times now and just bought it for my sister-in-law for Christmas... I love it!March 9-10, 2010Errr... ditto to what I said before. And now I'm REALLY excited to read Enna Burning just as soon as it gets here through ILL!!April 3, 2009In an Austin Powers voice: "One million stars..."It's been a really long time since I added a book to my favorites bookshelf. (It takes quite a special book to earn a spot there, after all... thought it may not LOOK like it to the casual observer...) But I didn't hesitate before adding this one.This is what I think about the book:If someone had told me before I read this book, "Hey, Sara! You should read this book! It's about a girl who can talk to birds!" I would have (1) tried really hard not to roll my eyes, (2) smiled and nodded, and (3) never ever picked up the book. Things like that are just.... CHEESY, you know? "Oooh... Animal whisperer..."But this book SUCKED me in. Like a really powerful vortex that even the Starship Enterprise could never get out of... (And Captain Janeway got them out of a really bad-ass vortexy-type thing one time.) Usually there's kind of a "boring" part of a bookat the beginning.... somewhere in the middle, when it starts dragging... But this book had nonstop suction. (Wow. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner!)ANYWAY, the book sucked me in. It was just so interesting, with its mythology-type stories/legends at the beginning, and then really quickly, she starts her journey toward Bayern... And all along the way CRAP keeps happening to her. Usually books that make you tear-up do so near the end, you know? But this one... it was like 50 pages into the book, and I'm on the verge of tears. The mere fact that I cared enough about the characters only 50 pages in to cry over stuff that's happening to them REALLY speaks highly of the writing, I'd say.So ALL THIS CRAP keeps happening to her, and I'm like, "Uhhh... Shannon.... I read your Austenland book, and it had a happy ending... If this book doesn't start turning around, I might go jump off a bridge!" (Nevermind that there aren't any bridges in Bryan other than overpasses...) Parts were just so sad. But it all turned out pretty all right in the end, I'd say. (I can't stop grinning, so that's an understatement...)I was going to say something else... what.... character development. Ani/Isi shows REMARKABLE character development through the course of the book, which is fabulous! From shy, timid, and with an I'll-never-be-as-good-as-my-mother attitude to what she ends up as.... It's great. Just wonderful.Anyway, go read the book. The audiobook was AMAZING!! Produced by Full Cast Audio. It had a different reader for every character! It was fabulous! Like listening to a movie with a narrator!The library's copy of Enna Burning is checked in... I'll have to go pick it up tomorrow morning! :) Then on to River Secrets and Forest Born!EDIT: The library copy of Enna was lost, so I STILL haven't been able to get it... grrr...