published 1980; paperback 1980, Harper and Row

Have you ever wished you could fly? Really fly, not just by using an airplane or other device, but as naturally as a bird does? Georgie Dorian, the young protagonist of Jane Langton’s The Fledgling, has this wish come true when a Canada goose lands on her roof one night and offers to teach her.

She soon finds, however, that being granted your dearest wish doesn’t mean that everything will go smoothly. Georgie’s stepfather approves of the Goose Prince, but Georgie’s mother is afraid for her safety; her stepsister and brother worry that she’s going crazy. Their next-door neighbor, the dotty Miss Prawn, is convinced that Georgie is either a saint or a fairy and isn’t sure whether she should be worshiped or exorcised. Miss Prawn’s employer, Mr. Preek, wants to kill Georgie’s Goose Prince out of a mistaken commitment to protect her from the goose’s evil influence. And Georgie herself finds that she is starting to grow up. Will there be a place for a magical Goose Prince in her future?

Besides being a well-written coming-of-age story, The Fledgling is also a paean to the transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau, author of the classic book Walden; or Life in the Woods and the political essay Civil Disobedience, among other works. The Fledgling is set in Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau’s hometown, and Thoreau is practically another character in the book, embodied by a bust in Georgie’s house and by the Goose Prince himself. This book can serve as a good lead-in to Thoreau’s ideas for younger readers.

With its air of gentle melancholy, The Fledgling seems imbued with the spirit of autumn, the season in which it is set. Langton treats all her characters, even the villains, with a wry, understanding humor that makes this book interesting for adults even though it is aimed at children. The heart of the story, however, is the author’s love of nature. As Thoreau wrote, and as Langton quotes, “In Wildness is the preservation of the World.”

Review by Sara Lipowitz
Reviewed March 7, 1999

ISBN 0-06-440121-9

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