by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 14, 2010

There's cute drawings of a forlorn little goat. "She was quite an ordinary goat. Ordinary in every way…that is, except one." Caroline Jayne Church wrote the text and drew the book's charming pictures. They're simple full-color, cartoon-like sketches. And they tell a very sweet story.

"While most goats are happy to chew on leftovers, or Wednesday's washing, Little Apple Goat preferred apples…and pears…and cherries." There's a delightful drawing of the tiny goat, smiling, as a perfectly round apple drops from a tree. It's complemented by the word "Plop!" - the single word on the second page of the illustration. But the line of four trees tells the story, even before Church explains what that goat is doing. ("Every autumn, Little Apple Goat spent happy days in the orchard waiting for a crunchy apple, a rosy pear, or a juicy cherry to fall…")

The illustrations were created with black-ink drawings filled with watercolor, plus collages (according to the book's title page). I like how the sky is a different color in every illustration - first blue, then yellow, then aqua, purple, and red. And there's  a nice contrast to the colors when the little goat discovers a laundry line. The two-page illustration features a vast sky that's a soft aqua-blue. But each item on the clothesline is a different, and attractively bright, color.

The illustrations are funny, but so is the text.  "Plippety plip!" is the sound that the seed makes when Little Apple Goat spits them over the hedge. And the simple drawings of trees are still able to suggest the fierce wind that blows through on "one particular autumn day." Their leaves and branches blow out to one side - as Little Apple Goat looks up with a tiny frown. And then Church shows an entire field in which every apple tree is blowing in exactly the same direction…

There's a tip they give to writers: always put your characters through an extreme situation. And sure enough, Little Apple Goat has to face thing that she fears the most. The animals huddle together in the barn, as the howling wind ravages the orchard. And the next morning Little Apple Goat rushes out - to discover that every single fruit tree has toppled over. The farmer hauls them all away as logs, leaving nothing but stumps and a trail of muddy tire tracks.

But winter comes to the orchard, and then springtime - with new blossoms peeking over the hedge. And then one autumn, the goat gets a nice surprise, because the blossoms were gone, and her seeds have sprouted into an new orchard filled with fruit trees...

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