Over the Red-Brick Chimney

A little goose on her first migration stars in this gentle, reassuring picturebook. It opens mid-winter, snowflakes whirling in the air. It’s time for the geese to set off on their long flight from Greenland to Ireland. ‘Flap, creak, flap, away they went’, soaring above mountains and forests, cities and towns. When they run into a storm, Little Goose gets left behind, finally tumbling to the ground in a farmhouse. As she’s cared for by a boy called Finn and his mum, the palette changes from the blues and silvery-greys of the wintery sky to the warm reds and golds of the barn. Together, Little Goose and Finn play and grow through the winter until spring arrives. Little Goose is restless and when her geese family fly overhead, she knows it’s time to join them. Finn is sad, but Mum reassures him that Little Goose will be back and, sure enough, as winter comes again she’s there over the farmhouse flapping her wings as hard as she can. The story moves through the seasons beautifully, and the soundscape changes to match, from the noise of the storm, through the quiet of the barn, the cheery racket of Finn’s games, back to the quiet as he sits by the fire watching the geese through the window. For all the drama, the huge distances the geese cover (laid out on a map on the endpapers), this is a story full of comfort and reassurance, that friendships survive even over distance, that goodbyes become hellos. The illustrations catch the mood and characters very well and the text is particularly pleasing to read.