From the Publisher

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the first years of her life under her aunt's guidance learning to communicate with animals. As she grows up Ani develops the skills of animal speech, but is never comfortable speaking with people, so when her silver-tongued lady-in-waiting leads a mutiny during Ani's journey to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade anyone to assist her. Becoming a goose girl for the king, Ani eventually uses her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way to her true destiny. Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she can become queen of the people she has made her own.

Publishers Weekly

PW called this "an affecting debut novel. Those who enjoy getting lost in an enchanted world will discover here a satisfying and richly embellished retelling of a classic." Ages 10-up. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"[An] affecting debut novel."

The New York Times Book Review

"Enchanting. [Hale] adds such depth and scope.. In layer upon layer of detail a beautiful coming-of-age story emerges."

SFF Audio

"Full Cast Audio brings the characters to life in spot-on performances which won't disappoint fans of the novel."

Mary Jo Edwards - Children's Literature

Full Cast Audio brings the author's 2003 debut novel to life. Listening to the fictional characters on these ten compact discs almost makes this fantasy seem real. Hale's retelling of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale begins with the birth of the Crown Princess, Ani. Her mother, the queen of Kildenree, has royal expectations of her first born. However, Ani is more comfortable communicating with animals and nature. When one of their mares gives birth, Ani hears the foal, Falada, speak his name, and he hears Ani repeat it. Several years later, after Ani's sixteenth birthday, the queen tells her that she must travel to a neighboring kingdom and marry the prince of Bayern. Ani objects, but leaves Kildenree with her lady-in-waiting, Selia, and several palace guards. Before reaching Bayern, Ani discovers that Selia and some disloyal guards plan to kill her and the remaining guards so Selia can pretend to be the Crown Princess. Ani escapes and eventually arrives at the Bayern palace. Ani disguises herself as one of the forest people and accepts work as a goose keeper. Months pass and Ani finally gathers up the courage to reveal her true identity to the king and prince. The listener will be captivated by distinct character voices and pleased with the fairy tale ending. The listener will hear how Ani's self-respect and confidence develop along with the story. This outstanding audio book will make the listener feel as though they are sitting in the audience of a theatrical production. 2005, Full Cast Audio, Ages 10 up.

Rebecca Barnhouse - VOYA

In this rich, layered, and enchanting fairy-tale, love, loyalty, and hard work play as strong a role as magic. When her lady-in-waiting and guards betray her, Ani, the seventeen-year-old Crown Princess of Kildenree, finds herself working as a goose girl in Bayern, the country where she was supposed to have married the prince. She becomes a very good goose girl, but more important and with more difficulty, she becomes fast friends with the other workers, learning to trust them despite the secrets and subterfuge that make up her life. She cannot even let the dark-haired Bayerns see her Kildenrean yellow hair. Because she unexpectedly survived the massacre in which she was supposed to have been murdered, she is being hunted. Now the false princess has concocted a war so that militaristic Bayern will attack peaceful, defenseless Kildenree. Ani must do something to help her country, but how can she convince the king of Bayern to believe a simple goose girl? As with Robin McKinley's heroines, Ani does not trust her own talents and is slow to awaken to the magic within her. Also like those characters, she has a special affinity for horses, but the language of birds is her specialty. Although the book is stylistically accomplished, plot and characterization are uneven at first in this retelling of the Grimms' fairy tale. Yet by Part Two, a fourth of the way into the story, Hale's hand becomes steadier so that by the end, she, like her heroine, has come into her own, locating the magic of her voice. Both Ani's and Hale's are talents to celebrate. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High,defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003, Bloomsbury, 388p,

Claire Rosser - KLIATT

To tell you the truth, the original fairy tale of "The Goose Girl" is somewhat vague in my memory, but this retelling holds its own as a story in its own right. It reminds me of the work of Robin McKinley in her retellings of "The Beauty and the Beast" and "Sleeping Beauty" (Beauty and Spindle's End). The world of the Princess Ani, who becomes the goose girl, is a fantasy world, but the people who live in this world are quite human in nature, with just a few supernatural features added. For instance, Ani is able to speak with animals, and she eventually even learns to connect with wind, controlling gusts and whirlwinds as needed. The princess has been given in marriage to the prince of a neighboring war-loving kingdom in an effort to create peace. On the long journey to her new home, Ani is betrayed by Selia, her lady-in-waiting, and by many of the armed guards who have been enticed by Selia's flirting. Ani escapes through the forest and is given refuge by a woman and her son. There is no way she can explain who she really is; she disguises her identity and gets a job as a goose girl in the capital city of the kingdom where she was meant to be queen. At this point, we are a third of the way into the story. Ani is slowly transformed into an independent-thinking, courageous young woman as she makes her way in the society of other young people who work with the geese and other animals belonging to the king. From afar she sees Selia impersonating her, passing herself off as the Princess Ani, engaged to marry the prince. Selia has plotted to protect her own identity by inciting a war between the two kingdoms—but before this war and the marriage can take place, Ani, with the help of the farmworkers and forest dwellers, rises up to stop the war and expose Selia as an imposter. The adventure is made all the more appealing by the many details of the horse Ani loves and the other animals she is close to. Her ability with horses joins her with a young man, who says he is the servant of the prince, and their respect for one another grows into love, but it is a love that must be denied—until the happy ending. (Fairy tales always have a happy ending.) This YA novel will appeal to readers of fantasy and to all who enjoy seeing classic stories transformed by a creative author. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Bloomsbury, 383p. map.,

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-A full-cast production voiced by over four dozen actors brings this well-known Grimm's fairy tale to life, albeit it with a modern and magical twist. In this delightful dramatization of the book by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury, 2003), 16-year-old Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isillee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, is betrayed by Selia, her jealous and evil lady-in-waiting, and takes refuge as a goose girl while plotting how to reclaim her rightful place as the bride-to-be of the Prince of Bayern. Gifted with the ability to speak to animals and talk to the wind, Princess Anidori-now called "Isi"-falls in love, makes new friends, and collects allies in her quest to claim her title. This tale of courage and perseverance is a listening delight.-Cindy Lombardo, Tuscarawas County Public Library, New Philadelphia, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A beautifully textured and deeply re-imagined version of the Grimm Brothers Goose Girl, Hale's first novel is too long by a fair amount, but ensorcelled teen readers, swept up in the romance and the luscious language, probably won't notice. All the elements are here: a princess called Ani is born with the gift of hearing and understanding the birds, the wind, and her beautiful horse, Falada. But Ani's mother, the queen, who has the gift of people-speaking, is so disappointed that Ani's gifts are in another direction that she sends Ani off to marry a prince of the next kingdom. On the road, Ani's serving maid Selia and her cohorts kill her guard and Selia takes Ani's place. Ani is cared for by a forest woman, becomes a goose herd in the town, and sees Falada's head hung in the town square. When Ani rallies her gaggle of friends to try to stop the war that Selia is instigating to hide her treachery, it leads to a gorgeous, dramatic climax where stories "tell us what they can. The rest is for us to learn." (Fiction. YA)

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Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

The Goose Girl

Bloomsbury USA

Chapter One

She was born Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she did not open her eyes for three days.

The pacing queen directed ministers and physicians to the crib. They listened to her breathing and her hummingbird heart, felt her fierce grip and her tiny fingers soft as salamander skin. Al was sound. But her eyes did not open.

For three days the grave-faced attendants came and went. They prodded her, lifted her lids, slipped thick yellow syrups down her throat "You are a princess," the queen whispered to her ear. "Open your eyes."

The baby cooed in her sleep.

When the third day had worn away to the lake blue of evening, a hand parted the nursery curtains. All was still for the night. The queen dozed on the bed. The baby in her crib dreamed of milk, her round, perfect lips nursing in sleep. A woman in a fern green robe pulled aside the curtains and tiptoed across the carpets. She slid her callused hands under the infant's back and head, held her up, and grinned.

"Did you call me out of my house to come and tell you stories?" she said. "I will, my fat one, if you will listen."

The queen awoke to the sounds of the rocking chair creaking and a voice singing about magpies and pigeons. She stood up, ready to call the guards, then saw that it was her own sister who sang to the baby, and that the baby was looking back at her aunt with wide eyes.

It was the aunt who shortened the crown princess's name to Ani.

On clear days she took Ani to the north edge of the palace grounds where no wall had been built. That far out, the garden was allowed to stray out of its ordered beds and rows and merge with the occasional copse of ash and pine. The aunt felt easier there, and she held her niece's small hand and named all she saw.

"You see the bird on the tallest branch there, the one with a yellow breast?" she's migrating farther north now that the weather is warmer. The bluewing there is looking for twigs and says he has a found a picky mate."

Ani began to speak sentences at one year. The aunt knew too well how Kildenreans disliked anything outside the common, and she tried to keep Ani's progress hidden. But the household staff noted it, and rumours began that perhaps the queer green-clad nurse-mary possessed unnatural methods of awakening a child's words.

The queen was uncomfortable with the talk and careful never to call the new nurse-mary "sister". But the king was too stubborn to worry much. "Why shouldn't she be a quick leaner? She is our daughter, of pure blood as are ever born in this world, and has every right to speak before her time."

But the king saw little of his firstborn, and the queen even less. Calib-Loncris was born, the first son, and then Napralina-Victery, who from birth so resembled her mother that the nurse-marys were inclined to curtsy to the crib. With the parents' attention parted, the aunt became Ani's constant companion.

In the cold weather or spring rain, the aunt sat on the nursery floor and told Ani stories of fantastic and faraway things: a land where mares pawed gold nuggets from the earth and chewed them in order to breathe out music; a baker who loved her baby so fiercely, she put him in a tight locket around her neck so that he might never grow up. The aunt sang songs again and again until Ani learned the words, her toddler's voice as dry and delicate as a sparrow's call.

A day in early summer when Ani was five, the two companions sat in an aspen's dappled shade on the edge of the garden swan pond. Ani loved the birds that were as big as she and begged them to eat bread out of her hands. When the bread was all gone, they shrugged their wings and shronked at her.

"What did they say?"

"They wanted to know," said the aunt, "was there more bread for the eating or should they go back to the pond."

Ani looked at the nearest swan straight in the eye. "No more bread. You may go."

The swan shrugged his wings again.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't think he speaks your language, duckling." The aunt turned her profile and one eye to the swan and made a sound like the swan spoke, not quite a honk and almost a whine. The swan padded back to the pond.

Ani watched with a solemn expression and after a moment repeated the sounds she had heard. "Was that right?"

"Perfect," said the aunt. "Say that again."

She repeated the noise and smiled. The aunt looked at her thoughtfully, the corners of her mouth tight with suppressed excitement.

"Does that make you happy?" asked the aunt.

"Yes," said Ani with little-girl uncertainty.

The aunt nodded and took Ani into her lap to tell her a story about beginnings. Ani leaned her head against her aunt's chest and listened to both the story and the sound of the story.

"The Creator spoke the first word, and all that lived on the earth awoke and stretched and opened their mouths and minds to say the word. Through many patterns of stars, they all spoke to one another, the wind to the hawk, the snail to the stone, the frog to the reeds. But after many turnings and many deaths, the languages were forgotten. Yet the sun still moves up and down, and the stars still shift in the sky, and as long as there are movement and harmony, there are words."

Ani leaned her head back and, squinting, tried to look at the sun. She was young and had yet to learn that things like seeing the sun were impossible.

"Some people are born with the first language resting on their tongue, though it may take some time before they can taste it. There are three kinds, three gifts. Did you know your mother has the first? The gift of people-speaking. Many rulers do. You see? And many people listen to them, and believe them, and love them. I remember as children it was difficult to argue to argue with your mother - her words confused me, and our parents always believed her over me. That can be the power of people-speaking.

"The first gift is the only reason this little land was not taken over by other kingdoms long ago. Rulers like your mother have talked themselves out of war for centuries. It can be powerful and good, and it can also be dangerous. I, unfortunately, wasn't born knowing people-speaking." The aunt laughed, and the surface of her eyes gleamed with memory.

"Do I have it, Aunt?"

"I don't know," she said. "Perhaps not. But there are other gifts. The second is the gift of animal-speaking. I've met a few who are able to learn animal languages, but like me, those people feel more comfortable near the mountains among the trees and places where animals are not in cages. It's not always a pleasant life, sparrow. Others are suspicious of those who can speak with the wild things. Once there was many of us in Kildenree, I believe, but now, so few remember.

"The third is lost or rare. I've never known one with the gift of nature-speaking, though there are tales that insist it was. I strain my ears and my eyes and my insides" - she tapped her temple lightly - but I don't know the tongue of fire or wind or tree. But someday, I think, someone will discover how to hear it again."

The aunt sighed and smoothed her niece's yellow hair. "Not many know the story of the three gifts, Ani. You must remember it. It's important to know stories. I felt the earth shift to make a place for you when you were born, and I came to tell you stories while you were young. And like me, you were born with a word on your tongue. I don't know what word it was. You will grow older and discover it one day without my help."

"Maybe fire or wind or tree?" said Ani.

"Maybe," said the aunt. "I don't know those tongues. I can't help you discover them."

Ani patted her aunt's cheek as though she were the elder of the two. "But you can teach me to speak with the swans."

They returned each day to the pond. When no gardener worked within sight or courtier walked near, Ani practised the sounds she heard.

"They don't have such a complicated world as we do and need so few words," said the aunt. "Did you hear? The tall one was greeting the one with the tail feathers missing. They are brothers. If they were sisters, the sound would go up at the end."

Ani listened. "I heard it. Like this." She mimicked the greeting, drawing up the last sound slightly.

"Very good," said the aunt. "You know, most people wouldn't notice that. You can hear the tiny differences and imitate them - that's your talent. But it takes work, too. You have to learn what it all means, like studying any foreign language. And it's not just sounds. Watch how that one there bobs her head and moves her tail. And holds still. It all means something."

On walks, the aunt called down the little birds from ash and beech perches, but hey were anxious, busy things and would not stay long from there trees. Ani learned some of what the chickens in their coops and pigeons on their ledges complained and cooed to one another. They visited the small gray falcons and gold hawks when the hunt-master was out, and the wide-eyed owls in the barn rafters.

On one walk back from their wild garden, they passed the corrals. The warm, earthy smell drew Ani close, and she stood on a fence rail and watched the stable-master ride a graceful gray. She pointed.

"I want to speak to that one. The horse."

"What a smart girl to think to ask." She leaned behind Ani, her cheek pressed against her niece's, and watched the animal run. "I have tried to speak to so many animals, Ani. The wild ones like wolves and deer will not stay still to listen or be listened to. Lizards, toads, rats, and all the little animals - I think perhaps their language is too simple for us bigger animals to understand. The domestic creatures like dogs, cows, and cats are sleepy in their comfort and used to communicating with people on our own terms. And birds, as you have seen, are perfect for speech. Always wild and yet always listening, and the larger one especially, for they speak more slowly.

"But the horse, ah, Ani, I will tell you a story. Several years ago, I helped a friend with his foaling mare, and the little colt fell into my arms. I heard him, just after he tumbled out, emit a mournful little sound, something like 'Yulee.' His name. Horses are born with their own name on their tongue, you see? I repeated it back to him, and he heard me, and ever since he can hear me and I can hear him. It's a horse's way to give you the key to their speech once and never repeat it. I've tried the same with a calf and a litter of kittens and a kid-goat, but only the colt has responded. What do you think of that?"

"I would like a horse friend," said Ani. "Very much."

Perhaps a horse would not hit her with play swords, like her little brother, or treat her like a glass vase and then whisper behind her back, like the other palace children.

The aunt shook her head. "You're too young. Sometime, some year, when you're older and you can go to the stables and your mother will not question why. For now, you must listen to your winged friends."

Ani was eager to learn the voice of every bird that nested on the palace grounds, but the swan pond drew her return day after day. She loved to watch them swim so slowly that the water hardly rippled and watch every silent, mild movement shimmer into meaning. Soon her throat and tongue could make nearly all the sounds of the swans, and she trumpeted gleefully.

"Hush a moment, Ani," said the aunt.

The key-mistress and her daughter, Selia, passed by the pond on the walk to the gardens. The aunt waves, and the key-mistress nodded. Her little girl was pretty and poised, with hair already to her waist. She walked with hands clasped in front and eyes centred on the path ahead. As a little girl she had been prone to violent tantrums, notorious for turning all shades of pink and purple and for kicking the floor like a landed fish. But she was seven now and prim as a court lady.

"Hello Crown Princess," said Selia. "We are going to the gardens. Come for tea sometime."

"Um, yes, thank you." Ani was not used to being addressed by other children, and besides, this strange little girl had always made her feel uneasy - at once willing to do whatever Selia asked and eager to escape her notice. The aunt raised one eyebrow in the blue shadow of her hat and watched the pair stroll away.

"That one has the gift of people-speaking," she said. "It can be powerful. Mark me and watch her."

Ani watched the serious little girl stroll away and tried to remember. People-speaking. That one has.

That year, when the trees burned the fire of the late summer into their leaves and the ground mist was a ghost of the river, long wet and cold, the aunt looked from her window to the walls around her and imagined another winter inside them. She began to see the world as a bird sees bars, and she scratched her arms beneath her sleeves.

The aunt took Ani to the shore of the swan pond where the lazy-armed trees dipped themselves into their own reflections and the aspen's hard little leaves shook in the north, where few people lived and trees grew thick and prickly all year, and where the girl could not follow.

"I'm going home," she said. She kissed Ani's forehead, but her eyes did not leave the purple horizon. "Don't forget all you have learned. If your mother discovers what I have taught you, she will take it away. I know her. The only thing she has ever wanted is shiny and fits around her brow. Still, you are better off with her, gosling. I would not wish my solitude on you. Stay and learn to be happy."

The princess sat on a stone, rested her arm on the back of a swan, and thought how her chest felt like a gutted walnut shell, and wondered if that sensation might last forever. She watched her aunt walk away, disappearing into a tiny spot of green that the eye tricked into a shadow of a rock a long way in the distance.

The next morning, Ani was dismayed to see she had been given a new companion, a weak-hearted nurse-mary with skin like sour milk. They were not to go to the pond because "the young crown princess might fall in and drown, with her face bloated and purple like a sauced plum, would you like that?"

Despite her aunt's cautions, Ani was certain if she explained to the nurse-mary that she just wanted to speak with the swans, then it would be all right. When the woman's eyes widened, Ani mistook it for eagerness.

"I can understand what they say," Ani said. "I'll teach you how, too, if you like."

Continues...

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Excerpted from The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale Excerpted by permission.
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