Gooney Bird Greene

Gooney Bird Greene is a series of novellas for middle-grade readers that is written with the goal of inspiring and encouraging young people to love reading and to learn from what they are reading. Gooney’s stories, as well as the reactions of the class, are funny and relatable. Classmates often interrupt her to share stories about their own lives as they are inspired by Gooney’s stories. Through telling these stories, Gooney points out what makes them entertaining and notes the reasons she loses her audience to boredom at one point. She leaves room for discussion, empathizes with her audience, and asks Mrs. Pidgeon to enhance and prove her stories with research.

Gooney’s character is reminiscent of another famous character in literature: Pippi Longstocking. Like Pippi, Gooney Bird has long red hair and freckles, and she dresses and acts in accordance with her own will alone. She does not mind whether others admire or judge her as long as she is comfortable. Like Pippi, Gooney Bird tells stories, but unlike Pippi, Gooney Bird’s stories are always true. Furthermore, Gooney Bird is described as an excellent and well-behaved student who always finishes her work, and she is well versed in literary concepts; on the other hand, Pippi Longstocking disliked school and following rules. While the two characters are similar, Gooney Bird is a more modern take on the eccentric storyteller trope that serves more as a role model for young readers.