Gossie Board Book (Gossie & Friends)

As board books go, this is a looong one, yet, "Gossie" holds one's interest even as it introduces a barnyard full of prepositions and situations. Oliver Dunrea's idyllic little watercolor and ink drawings are a beguiling mix of innocence and sheer pluck and energy. Gossie occupies the center of the page, generally waddling across safe, cozy little settings. There's lots of white space, with Gossie invariably pictured in profile. (Funny... although she's a gosling, she looks more like a duck to me.) We quickly learn that Gossie is just gaga over her red boots. She wears them everywhere, and is very nimble in them, walking both backwards and forwards! She's small and simple enough for young toddlers to identify with, and hence adore. The bright primary colors will attract the eyes of even the youngest audience. Gossie's joyful romp is interrupted when she loses her beloved red boots. She looks everywhere for them, and that search introduces all those prepositions and nouns and other good little vocabulary words. Another writer might have placed some false clues, a red little something that is NOT the red boots, but Dunrea keeps the story simple, there are no red herrings here. To her utter delight, Gossie finally finds her boots on the feet of her pal Gertie (featured more prominently in other books). One would expect such thievery among snallfry to result in cries, fists, or outrages accusations--maybe even fisticuffs or floods of tears. Instead we have an exquisite example of uncomplicated friendship: Gertie hands over the boots, and compliments Gossie on her sartorial tastes! Gossie, ever the sweetie, returns this generosity by sharing her single pair of boots with Gertie. We're left with one gentle and funny picture of each bird wearing ONE boot, walking (in profile, of course), together across the page. This is a somewhat unusual board book because of its comparative length. It's appropriate for the older toddler as well as the younger. In fact, the reader may chose to read this in sections--like a chapter book without chapters--for littler ones with short attention spans. To sum, the book has a lovable main character (Gossie), a favorite object (the red boots), a simple plot that's neither too bland nor dramatic (oh, my where are the boots!), latent educational value (all those directional prepositions), light,pleasant, nursury-worthy illustrations, and a positive, slyly humorous conclusion. In short, another winner in the board book category!

All logical corners of my cranium make it perfectly clear that there is no understandable reason why I liked, "Gossie" as much as I did. The pictures are repetitive with very little detail and a heroine who's mouth is permanently agape. What's to love? But then there's that part of my brain that looks beyond the obvious hairline faults of an otherwise near perfect creation. If Gossie looks the same from page to page, that's because such repetitions are adored by early readers everywhere. If her story is not a rousing shoot-em-up escapade, it makes up for it by being a lovely simple story told with the ideal amount of words and images. And if Gossie is not your typical gosling heroine, it may well be that original appearance that makes her so darned appealing in the first place. "Gossie" may not be the greatest preschooler tome ever penned, but you'd have a hard time conjuring up a list of any that are better. Storywise, there's not much to say. Gossie loves her bright red boots. A chronic mouth breather, she spends her days stomping around and about in the aforementioned attire. One day, however, the boots are nowhere to be found. In a state of panic so intense that she shuts her beak in misery, Gossie searches high and low. All seems lost until she finds that the boots are walking. "On someone else's feet!". Her fellow gosling, Gertie, compliments her on her choice of footwear and by the end of the tale the two are stomping about, one boot on each gosling's foot. Aside from the fact that the book teaches good heartfelt lessons about sharing and not getting mad when younger friends/siblings purloin one's belongings, the books a heckuva lotta fun to read. Gossie herself is entirely enticing. Dunrea has drawn her with fine pen and inks and filled her bright yellow body in with swaths of yellow. Her adventures (prior to the boot loss) teach kids about the wonders of uphill, downhill, rain, snow, backwards, forwards, etc. The words are simple enough for kids to grasp but presented in a charming package. If I someday make a list of preschooler-books-parents-can-read-twenty-times-over-without-gagging, this will undoubtedly be number one. Heck, you could read it one hundred times without cease and still find yourself charmed by its plucky little ending. Few will marvel over the fact that this book garnered itself several sequels. In the world of preschooler picture books written with little hands in mind, "Gossie" takes the cake. It's that rare breed of book that appeals to the sensibilities of Harvard educated yuppie parents and their applesauce smeared two-year-old heirs. A fine fine purchase.

The first in a series about Gossie and her friends, this bookhas captivated my 6 month old, myself and my husband! The pages flow so nicely and the illustrations are simple, very beautiful and full of little suprises. We look forward to more books by Olivier Dunrea. We also reccomend "Gossie and Gertie" "Ollie" and "Ollie the Stomper"

My two year old loves this book so much that she has almost the entire story memorized. As a parent, nothing is better than having your child look at the picture and tell you the story word for word. The words are simple enough for any child to understand. And it teaches concepts, such as backwards and forwards that small children easily pick up. It is a cute story that a two year old can relate too, a great learning to read tool, a wonderful teacher of concepts and not too silly for parents to read thousands of times. I can't say enough about Gossie!

"This is Gossie. Gossie is a gosling. A small, yellow gosling who likes to wear bright red boots. Every day..." They are her prized possession, and she almost never takes them off. She wears them all the time, rain or shine, eating or sleeping. Gossie just loves her bright red boots. Then one morning they disappear. Gossie looks everywhere, from one end of the farm to the other, but she can't find them. "They were gone. Gossie was hearbroken." But what is that flash of red? Could that be her beloved boots? "They were walking. On someone else's feet!" Olivier Dunrea's clever text is engaging and written in short, simple sentences that little ones will beg to help you read. His charming and expressive artwork is bright, playful, and very appealing, and filled with gentle humor and captivating eye-catching details. With a happily-ever-after solution to set everything right in the end, Gossie is a fun-filled preschool crowd pleaser that's sure to become an instant favorite at your house.