The Goose Girl (novel)

The Goose Girl

First edition cover of The Goose Girl.
Author	Shannon Hale
Cover artist	Alison Jay (first edition), Juliana Kolesova (photograph cover)
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Books of Bayern
Genre	Fantasy novel
Publisher	Bloomsbury Press
Publication date	August 8, 2003
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	383
ISBN
OCLC	51042139
LC Class	PZ8.H134 Go 2003
Preceded by	none
Followed by	Enna Burning

The Goose Girl is a fantasy novel by Shannon Hale based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same title. The book won the 2003 Josette Frank Award for youth fiction.

Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna bonds with her Aunt, who becomes her nursemaid and constant companion. She tells Ani, as the Princess is soon nicknamed, stories about three gifts certain people have: people-speaking, animal-speaking and nature-speaking abilities. Her Aunt says that Ani’s mother has the gift of people-speaking, as do many monarchs; she also says that she herself has the gift of animal-speaking. Ani discovers she has the gift of animal-speaking, but her Aunt soon returns to the forest, and Ani's mother, the queen, keeps Ani from using her gift of animal-speaking, for she thinks the people will not trust her if she communicates with beasts. Later, it is revealed that her beloved Aunt died that winter.

Ani is now fifteen. Her lady-in-waiting and close friend Selia, whose mother is the key-mistress, has the gift of people-speaking. Ani’s inability to be sociable and perfect like her mother leads her to seek solace in her horse, Falada, with whom she can communicate telepathically. She often goes riding with her father, the king, who is easier to get along with than the queen, but he dies in a horse-riding accident. After the funeral, Ani’s mother proclaims that her eldest son is inheriting the throne. She reveals to Ani that, behind her and her father’s back, she engaged the Ani to the Crown Prince of the powerful neighboring kingdom of Bayern, and that Ani is to travel there to marry him. Ani feels betrayed and even more isolated but complies.

While travelling to Bayern with guards and Selia, Ani notices a relationship form between Selia and Ungolad, one of Ani's guards. Selia gains the admiration of several guards and leads them to kill the princess and replace her with Selia. Ani flees, leaving behind Falada and the remaining loyal guards.

After days of walking in the Forest, Ani collapses in the garden of Gilsa, a Bayern Forest woman, who helps Ani heal. Unlike Gilsa and other Bayern people, who have brown or black hair, Ani has yellow hair, a Kildenrean feature. Ani dyes her brows black, covers her hair, and assumes the alias "Isi," a Forest-born who seeks work in the Bayern Capital. She finds a job tending the king's geese alongside a boy named Conrad, and she lives among other animal workers, to whom she tells stories. She learns to communicate with geese and slowly discovers her ability to listen to and manipulate wind. She befriends and develops romantic feelings for Geric, a royal guard who visits her in the fields.