Roderick Townley

First sentence: Sylvie had an amazing life, but she didn't get to live it very often. What good were potions and disguises if no one came along to scare you or save you or kiss you behind the waterfall? Week after week nothing changed. Years went by. The sparkles on Sylvie's dress began to fade, and a fine dust coated the leaves, turning the green woods gray. Once in a while, it looked as though something might happen.

The Great Good Thing is a book about books, or perhaps the self-awareness show more of fictional characters OF their human readers. This is a book about lasting impressions and dreams. It's an odd little book that doesn't necessarily fit many molds. It does celebrates stories and storytelling and LEGACIES of stories.

Sylvie, the main character, is a fictional book character that--for better or worse, mostly for better--has a special relationship with a family of readers--a grandmother/granddaughter. She is able to "crossover" from the fictional world--the literal pages of her book--into the readers' dream world. When her book suffers a horrible fate--a fire--she is able to help the other characters transition into her readers' dream world where they exist--barely, minimally--for decades.

The book is more abstract and philosophical than young readers may appreciate? In other words, this might 'touch' adults more than children. Though if it's read aloud by an adult who absolutely loves the story, I wouldn't be surprised if young readers catch the enthusiasm and love it as well. I just don't personally see it as a book that kids will discover on their own and absolutely fall in love with. It would need some hand-selling or "blessing."

The book has a heaviness to it which I think might vary from reader to reader to reader. It has a lot of things--directly and indirectly--to say about death. show less

This is a children's book and not one that has the depth to stand up to critical reading by an adult, but as a children's book, it was a fun story with enough depth and uncertainty to keep it from being saccharine. If your question is "Should an adult who likes great children's books read this?" the answer is maybe. But if your question is "Should I read this if I am sitting in my child's room and need something to read?" the answer is, "yes, and you'll probably have a pretty good time."

I spent a couple of afternoons with this alternate universe-type of book. Recommended to me by the author, his main character, Daniel is unable to tell lies of any kind, so when the soldiers show up in his town, the sergeant latches onto Daniel to learn the secrets of the community. Except the community knows Daniel's onus and doesn't share all their secrets with him.

This started off to be very promising-the idea of book characters coming to life and even entering the reader's dream was really great. The problem to me with this book is that it became less about the fantasy and fun and more and more about death, old age, where people go when they die, etc, which is definitely not apparent on the back of the book, book jacket, anywhere! I would only recommend this book for kids who WANT to know more about death and dying or who has old grandparents who show more might pass soon, or a similar situation. Otherwise, I would hold off on this book as it is extremely sad and depressing. show less