THE GOOSE THAT ALMOST GOT COOKED

Emily the Canadian goose dares to be different—she is constantly breaking flight formation with fanciful flips and loop-the-loops. Even cautious friend Sam cannot talk sense into this silly goose, who tires out and lands in a farmer's barnyard with seven plump domestic geese that are being fattened for the kill. Emily has molted her flight feathers, so it seems there's no escape from the oven. Biding her time, the day arrives when she lunges past the farmer's wife and rediscovers flight—and freedom: "It felt great to be back with her friends." It's a somewhat predictable tale, and not really worthy of the friendly art that gives Emily plenty of personality. From the comical bottoms-up, flayed-legs view of the farmer's wife's bloomers to the mournful portrait of a lone goose missing her flock, Simont's watercolors harken back to the pastoral days of Janice May Udry's A Tree Is Nice (1955), combined with the humor of his work in Karla Kuskin's The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (1982). (Picture book. 4-8)