Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Great Good Thing, The
Author: TOWNLEY RODERICK
Format: PAPERBACK
Publication date: 01/10/2002
Imprint: ALADDIN
Price: $14.00
Publishing status: Active
Publisher Marketing:
“”Rawwwwk!” Reader!” screams an orange bird. “Booook open!” groans a frog. Then the sky lifts away and the enormous face of a child peers down into Sylvie’s storybook world. At last, a reader again!
Sylvie has been a twelve-year-old princess for more than eighty years, ever since the book she lives in was first printed. She’s the heroine, and her story is exciting — but it’s always exciting in the same way. That’s the trouble. Sylvie has a restless urge to explore, to accomplish a Great Good Thing beyond the margins of her book. This time, when the new face appears, Sylvie breaks the rule of all storybook characters: “Never look at the Reader.” Worse, she gets to know the reader, a shy young girl named Claire, and when Claire falls asleep with the book open, Sylvie enters her dreams.
After a fire threatens her kingdom, Sylvie rescues the other characters, taking them across the sea in an invisible fish that rolls up like a window shade when it’s out of water. For years they all live, royalty and rogues, in Claire’s subconscious — a surprising and sometimes perilous place.
In this new land, Sylvie achieves many Good Things, but the Greatest, like this dazzling book, goes far and deep, beyond even her imaginings.
Hornbook Guide to Children (07/01/2001):
Sylvie, a princess in a storybook, escapes from the margins of her pages and enters the dreams of one of the book’s readers, a girl named Claire. A generation later, Sylvie crosses into the dreams of Claire’s daughter Lily and inspires the young woman to write. This cleverly inventive novel contains some underdeveloped scenes but comes to a thoughtful and touching conclusion. (Copyright 2001 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
Booklist (03/15/2001):
Gr. 4-6. When it comes to fairy tales, it’s hard to find much new under the sun. But try this. Princess Sophie lives inside a book called ” The Great Good Thing” with her parents, thieves, a prince, the usual suspects. When the Reader opens the book, the story begins, and Sophie plays her spunky role. Unlike the other characters, however, Sophie has an adventurous spirit that leads her outside the margins of her book. In that other world, she befriends the Reader, a girl named Claire, the granddaughter of the first Reader, who is old and ill. Years later, as Claire is dying, Sophie must find a way to implant herself in Claire’s daughter’s memory so the characters of the book can survive. Sophie is a dynamic character who stays true to her fairy-tale roots even as she literally pushes the boundaries of her world. Less successful are the human characters; it seems their role is to show the impermanence of the temporal world, not a natural topic for kids. What’s most interesting here is the concept. Townley sets a difficult task for himself. He must maintain the integrity of the storybook world–lights must go on when the book covers close, and one-dimensional characters must still show some life–and at the same time, integrate the storybook characters into the “real” world. He mostly succeeds, but even when he doesn’t, it’s fun to watch him try.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)
Publishers Weekly (05/21/2001):
In his clever, deftly written first novel for young readers, Townley gives life to Princess Sylvie and her cohorts, characters from an out-of-print and rarely read fairy tale, by having them cross over to the dreams of Readers. In this new context, the characters must perform without scripts, and so imagine stories beyond their own. For 12-year-old Sylvie, this is a venue to break out of her safe and “storied” life as an obedient girl and become the heroine of the kingdom. This narrative line is interwoven with the story of three generations of woman Readers who cherish the original tale. Sylvie and her friends, with the help of a “first” Reader, known as the girl with “dark blue eyes,” cross from her granddaughter’s dreams to her great granddaughter’s to preserve the story, The Great Good Thing. The title takes on a double meaning it not only applies to the book itself, but also Sylvie’s quest to save it. In the process, an invisible fish and a blind owl come to her aid; there’s even a palace coup. The novel, as a journey through ephemeral spaces between thought, dreams and words, is as much a romantic paean to reading and writing as it is a good story. Older readers will most appreciate its layered meanings, but the book can be enjoyed at many levels. Ages 10-up. (May) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal (07/01/2001):
Gr 4-7-The characters in a fairy tale are also the major characters in this novel, and they become involved in the lives of its readers. Within the pages of a storybook, 12-year-old Sylvie, a princess, refuses to consider marriage until she accomplishes one “Great Good Thing,” and goes off to aid several animals in distress. Sylvie also violates the cardinal rule of storybooks and looks her Reader right in the eye, establishing a lasting bond with her. She lives the role of an adventurous heroine, rescuing her story when Claire’s brother sets the book on fire. She ventures in and out of Claire’s dreams. In hazy transitions, the story moves to a subconscious level with all the book characters only alive in the oral retelling, eventually in danger of being forgotten. Numerous supporting characters float in and out of the scenes: Claire’s menacing brother; her grandmother (the original Reader who gave her the book); and, eventually her daughter Lily, who saves Sylvie’s story from disappearing. However, the movement of characters in one person’s dream or waking world to the mind of another is difficult to follow or swallow. This is an extremely clever and multilayered concept, but one has to question the child appeal, even among the most ardent fantasy fans. Most young readers will lose interest in this book long before its admittedly happy conclusion.-Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Review Quotes:
James Howe
Review Quotes:
James Howe
I read the first sentence of “The Great Good Thing, ” and it was love at first sight. Here is a stunningly original story, full of beautifully crafted words, ideas that crackle with intelligence, and characters who literally step off the pages and into the readers’ minds and hearts. A timeless treasure for all ages.
Marc Notes:
A Richard Jackson book.; Sequel: Into the labyrinth.; Nothing ever changes inside the storybook kingdom inhabited by twelve-year-old Princess Sylvie, her parents, and many other characters until Sylvie discovers that by allying herself with the Reader she can experience new adventures beyond the confines of the book.
ISBN: 9780689853289