Poor Goose - a French folktale retold and illustrated by Anne Rockwell

This folktale was a frequently-requested read aloud by my two children. The original folktale was titled The Four Friends and published in 1968. The Poor Goose version was published later in 1976. The story is a cumulative journey tale about four animals who meet along Goose's journey to the castle to get some tea to make her headache better. The folk-art style of the illustrations emphasizes scenes and objects typical of those seen in France. The drawings are simple and child-like, and they lack perspective. The pictures very effectively supplement and extend the text, however. Each page shows a framed illustration on a different colored a patterned background that seems to add charm to the story and to focus the reader's attention on the pictures. The text in the folktale even applies the French style of quotation marks. As the journey progresses Goose meets Cat, the two of them meet Lamb, and the three of them meet Cow. Each chooses to join the others in the journey to the castle, because each wishes to find something different for themselves there. The climax of the tale occurs when they all hear a wolf howl, and they are scared into an old woman's house on the hill. Throughout the tale a recurring verse is recited by the animals,

Cric-Crac, kitchen spoon, Over the hill, We'll get there soon.

. This verse adds rhythm to the oral reading of the tale, and the predictable page turns add to the interest to this read-aloud. In the end the animals never arrived at the castle, but they found a new and comfortable home and caring in the home of the old woman who gladly took them in. This folktale implies the lesson about realizing that your desires may realized in simpler things than you choose to dream, and happiness can be found unexpectedly.