Other Goose
Once there was a goose called Katerina…
Katerina was the only goose on her pond, and this made her very sad and rather lonely.
Sometimes she thought she could see another goose in the side of the bank manager, Mr Buswell’s shiny car. She would stare and stare at it, hoping that one day that goose would come out and join her on the pond.
“Just look at that silly bird!” said Mr Buswell. But everyone liked Katerina no matter what he said.
One dark Christmas night when everyone was at a party in the square, Katerina woke alone. She went to see the goose in the shiny car, but the goose had gone – had he come out at last? And who was that man with the goose-sized bag coming out of the bank? Was he carrying a goose-sized companion for Katerina? When Katerina stops him to find out, she becomes the local heroine and gains a wonderful reward – life on her pond will never be the same again…
Judith Kerr OBE was born in Berlin. Her family left Germany in 1933 to escape the rising Nazi party, and came to England. She studied at the Central School of Art and later worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC.
Judith married the celebrated screenwriter Nigel Kneale in 1954. She left the BBC to look after their two children, who inspired her first picture book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Published in 1968 and never out of print in the fifty years since, it has become a much-loved classic and perennial bestseller.
Judith was awarded the Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and in 2019 was named Illustrator of the Year at the British Book Awards. Judith died in May 2019 at the age of 95, and her stories continue to entertain and delight generations of children.