Goose and Duck by Jean Craighead George

Book Genre: Fiction

Publisher Information: Harper Collins, 2008 (48 pages)

Summary: A little boy finds an egg by the lake. It cracks open and a goose pops out. The goose looks up at him and he is now the goose's mother. Everything the little boy did, the goose did. They ate spaghetti together, went to bed together, and jumped up and down together. Then one day they find a duck egg that hatched right in front of the boy and his goose. The baby duck looks up and sees the goose and the goose became it's mother. Now, whatever the boy did the goose did and whatever the goose did the duck did and they became quite a family. One night, Duck woke up and called for Goose, his mother, and Goose called for his mother, but the little bloy was fast asleep. They flew out the window, were picked up by a policeman, taken to the station where they caused quite a mess. The boy took them home and all was well until the leaves fell from the trees and Goose saw geese flying south for the winter. Off he went to follow his friends. Suddenly, he knew he was a goose and it was time to go. Duck saw ducks migrating south for the winter and he knew he must leave, too. The boy understood that we all must realize who we are, do what we must do to be ourselves, and he was a boy who had been a mother to a goose and a duck.

Reading Level: 2.3
Reading Interest: 4-8

Personal rating and reason for rating: (*** Good) I always like a story where the animal must be set free to live as natue intended but it tugs on the heart strings when they have to go. This would be a good book for read aloud for those too young to read and an intresting book for those who are able to read independently.

Possible uses of text in integrated units of study:

Science: The cycle of egg, to hatchling, to bird would be a good study, especially is baby quail eggs were hatched so the students could see the actual cycle in the classroom. In continuation of studing the bird cycle, the migration cycle could be introduced and the movie Migration from Discovery Channel is a good movie to show migration of everything from whales to crabs. Also, studying the four seasons would be a great segue for life cycles of birds or animals.

Math: The students could observe and count the number of days until the quail eggs hatch, record temperatures of the incubator, and notate how often the eggs are turned each day. This would be a practice of recording data for statistics and proability. Also, for more simple math, the students could use plastic colored eggs to create math problems such as; if Jenny has 9 purple eggs, Mary has 3 green eggs and Jack has 7 blue eggs what would be the total of all the green and blue eggs, the purple and green eggs and so forth. Subtraction, multiplication, and even selling the eggs to introduce money would a good combination with this book.

Language Arts: Words such as migration, policeman, duckling, neighboor and other words in the
book would be good for interactive writing or a word wall.

Social Studies: Teaching the students about policemen, when to call 911, learning their addresses and phone numbers would be good segments to integrate with this book. Having a policeman speak to the class would be interesting for the students, too.

Art: Have the students cut duck shapes from a stenciled picture and glue feathers to the cut out.

Reading: Students would read books concerning birds, migration, seasons, or policemen. I would want them to pick their own topic and write a summary.

Writing: Students would create a story about how they would be a mother to their favorite animal. What kind of food would the animal eat, where would it sleep, and how would you take care of it? This could motivate students for good creative writing.

Possible problems or difficulties: None that I able to see.