Synopses & Reviews
"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.
Review
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.
Synopsis
"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.
Synopsis
Sylvie is a 12-year-old princess, and has been for the more than 80 years the book she lives in was first printed. But Sylvie breaks the rule of all storybook characters when she looks at her reader and gets to know the shy young Claire. When Claire falls asleep with the book open, Sylvie then enters her dreams.
About the Author
Roderick Townley has written ten books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and literary criticism. He taught in Chile on a Fulbright fellowship, worked in New York as an editor, and now writes from his home in Kansas. He has two children, Jesse and Grace, and is married to poet Wyatt Townley.
Table of Contents
Part One * Sylvie Looks UpChapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Part Two * The Land to the East
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Part Three * Into the Mountains
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Part Four * The Crossing
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Part Five * Revision
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen