Goodness Gracious, Gulliver Mulligan
Written by: Susan Chalker Browne
Illustrated by: Cynthia Nugent
Raincoast Books $9.95
Recommended for ages: 5-8

This story of the underdog has an interesting twist. Gulliver Mulligan is a very tall boy who has no friends and doesn’t speak. He towers over his classmates and hardly fits into his desk and chair in his primary class. His mother is very concerned with the fact that he has no friends and is always asking him to invite children to their home. Instead, Gulliver sits outside and watches the children play together while he entertains himself with his trucks. Each day as the children file out of her class, Mrs. Honeytree looks at Gulliver and says, “Goodness Gracious, Gulliver Mulligan! Never in all my life have I seen such a large child! How wonderful to be so big!” But behind his back she takes pity on him to the other teachers. Despite all attempts by the adults around him to engage him in social situations, Gulliver refuses to speak thereby making it difficult to make friends. That is, until Mortimer Goss, a very small child with a fondness for the colour yellow, joins the class.

One fine day, Mrs. Honeytree takes the class on a nature walk and is trotting along briskly in her Lycra tights and headband describing the fall foliage to her troops and inadvertently loses her newest charge. It seems Mortimer spotted a beautiful yellow buttercup hidden in a bush and stopped to pick it when he got tangled up in a tree trunk. The poor teacher was unable to free him from the tree and so, called Gulliver to the rescue. Lucky for Gulliver, each morning he ate three eggs, four slices of toast and five bowls of cereal, for it was his strength that saved Mortimer. This unlikely pair became fast friends proving that friends come in a ll shapes and sizes.

This adorable new picture book is a perfect choice for story time when the issue of ‘odd-man-out’ is prevalent. The story, written and illustrated by Canadians, is somewhat long for this age group but the detailed illustrations and interesting name choices will be sure to keep the interest of all listeners.