A Silly Goose and a Rotten Egg

We  had a big reading night at the library this week. Quite a few kids and quite a few books. Our two favorites were a cute story about kindness and good manners and a tale about a zany goose.

Silly Tilly is by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by David Slonim. It was published by Marshall Cavendish Children in 2009.

This was a really funny book. The kids all laughed a lot at Tilly’s zaniness. The rhyming text made it easy for the little ones to read along. “Tilly was a silly goose, a daffy-down-and-dilly goose, who took her baths in apple juice.” Pretty silly alright! But some of her antics were pretty mean. Like riding the farmer’s cat and tickling the frogs and sitting on Rooster’s birthday cake!! The illustrations were what was really funny. But the kids didn’t think that Tilly was a very nice goose. Finally the barnyard animals have their fill of Silly Tilly and tell her “That’s enough!” Tilly retreats to the barn and is very sad. The kids actually cheered for the other animals! But after some time the animals decide life is too quiet and boring without Tilly. So, they apologize to her and invite her back into their lives. She goes back to her silly stunts and the farm is happy again! The End!
Great! Except for one thing. She didn’t learn anything from the experience. She goes back to her mean-spirited pranks. The kids and me thought this was not a very good ending. Why would they want her back to juggle baby chicks and do cartwheels on the cow’s back? We didn’t like the ending. It would have been better if a nicer Tilly had returned to her friends.

The next book provided us with a better ending.
Last One In Is a Rotten Egg is by Diane deGroat. It was published by Harper Collins in 2007 and is one in a series about Gilbert the possum.

Gilbert is a really cute little possum. A lot cuter than the possums I see around the 7 Acre Wood! In this story, Gilbert and his sister Lola were very excited that their cousin, Wally, was coming to visit. Gilbert really looked up to his bigger cousin and admired him. Wally was very rude. But Gilbert didn’t seem to notice. ( My reader kids did though!!) Wally always wanted to be first and would run and shout, “Last one there is a rotten egg!” He raced in the house knocking over things and raced to the table for lunch. The family was going to an Easter egg hunt that afternoon but Wally pooh-poohed the idea and said egg hunts were for babies. He talked with his mouth full! (the reader kids said that was very bad.) They went to the egg hunt and Wally was rude to Gilbert’s friends and then went racing and bulldozing around to find eggs. Lola was feeling bad because she had a hard time finding eggs so Gilbert helped her. They worked together. (the reader kids thought that was VERY big of Gilbert.) I won’t tell you the whole story. You need to read the book! But I will tell you that Wally gets his come-uppance in the end. Just like Silly Tilly. BUT, Wally learns a lesson from Gilbert and comes out better in the end. A much more satisfying ending!

Both of these books provided time for some really fun conversation with the kids about good manners and kindness. These were some smart, good kids! We all had some good laughs at the funny pictures and now we’re looking forward to Easter and egg hunts!

I think you should check both of these books out and see what you think!

And I’ll leave you with a little video that shows how kindness always comes back around!