The Great Good Thing by roderick townley

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

A sweet short fantasy that Colette recommended to me. Thank you.
A book has been memorized generationally in a family. But when the Reader forgets the story bad things start to happen within the story. Sylvie is the princess who is able to save the situation. A brilliant story about readers, writers, stories and even a mystery "author". This makes you think about time passing and how we save what is precious to us.
p. 164 A character, once dreamed, will live as long as the dreamer lives.
p. 168 I have to leave it to save it?
p. 178 You can't solve a problem from inside it.
p. 192 There is all the difference in the world between treasure and money.
p. 201 You're supposed to listen to voices you hear in dreams.
p. 210 This isn't an ordinary Reader. Listen, everyone! I'd like you to meet the Writer.

0 0 Reply

zimmermit

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

follows the story of a "young" book character, however, she’s not so young, because her book was published years ago. She has been living the same story at the same age for years. It is about her battle to save her book and her land. I felt sort of disconnected from the story only because it was a book about a story, so there was almost as if there was a wall, in my opinion. It was an interesting concept though. I found it hard to get into, I didn't really care about the characters very much.

0 0 Reply

Soulwarfare

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

A pure pleasure read. In this book, the characters are actually alive inside a storybook. When the book is closed "back up lights" come on and the characters relax a bit until the next reader comes along. When the reader shows up, they dash to their proper pages and recite their dialogue. The princess Sylvie discovers that she can make a leap from the pages of the book into the dreams of the reader. In this dream-scape she actually meets the reader and becomes her friend. Eventually all the characters from the book must flee from the pages to the reader's mind to escape the fire that has been set to their book. The second half of the book is about what happens in the reader's mind as the characters try to build a new life there. The style of the book is clear, simple, and poetic. I highly recommend this book to either a child or an adult. It's the second time I've read it and loved every minute of it.

0 0 Reply

PotatoFrenzy

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

29 April, 2014:

This is another of those books I can't quite explain my liking for. It's a story of book characters, their Readers, and their author.

Strangely enough, both my sister and I read it when we were young and then kind of forgot about it, only to discover it years later. It's one of those books that kind of slips the mind unless it's in front of you. Oh, /that/ book! I loved that book! What was it called?

I don't know if that's really a good sign or not, but I like it in some of the books I read--they're always a surprise when they're rediscovered.

0 0 Reply

NotDevDev

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Is it a child's book, or a book for adults? You'll have to decide.
But it is a book for anyone who realizes that characters in books can be real and that they live on long after you close the cover. Utterly charming.
Renewed my faith in books and reading.

0 0 Reply

icecream82

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I love this book. It has a great story line.

0 0 Reply

WLhigashikata

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Ahhh, that was wonderful~ it's a great, fun look at what happens inside a book once the Reader closes it. I'd never read this before and I'm kinda sad I missed out on it as a young reader. It really shows how passing a story on can really make a difference in so many lives, and remembering stories is a great thing for the characters to live on.

0 0 Reply

I3llackJack

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

First sentence: Sylvie had an amazing life, but she didn't get to live it very often. What good were potions and disguises if no one came along to scare you or save you or kiss you behind the waterfall? Week after week nothing changed. Years went by. The sparkles on Sylvie's dress began to fade, and a fine dust coated the leaves, turning the green woods gray. Once in a while, it looked as though something might happen.

The Great Good Thing is a book about books, or perhaps the self-awareness of fictional characters OF their human readers. This is a book about lasting impressions and dreams. It's an odd little book that doesn't necessarily fit many molds. It does celebrates stories and storytelling and LEGACIES of stories.

Sylvie, the main character, is a fictional book character that--for better or worse, mostly for better--has a special relationship with a family of readers--a grandmother/granddaughter. She is able to "crossover" from the fictional world--the literal pages of her book--into the readers' dream world. When her book suffers a horrible fate--a fire--she is able to help the other characters transition into her readers' dream world where they exist--barely, minimally--for decades.

The book is more abstract and philosophical than young readers may appreciate? In other words, this might 'touch' adults more than children. Though if it's read aloud by an adult who absolutely loves the story, I wouldn't be surprised if young readers catch the enthusiasm and love it as well. I just don't personally see it as a book that kids will discover on their own and absolutely fall in love with. It would need some hand-selling or "blessing."

The book has a heaviness to it which I think might vary from reader to reader to reader. It has a lot of things--directly and indirectly--to say about death.

0 0 Reply

Leave a Review

You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.

The Sylvie Cycle #1

The Great Good Thing

roderick townley

This edition

More editions

About the author

roderick townley

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews