5 h 39 minAudiobook18 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 39 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Small troubles feel big in childhood—and even an ordinary day can hold a lesson worth keeping.
In Nine Little Goslings, Susan Coolidge gathers gentle stories about children at home and at play. Her young characters are not perfect. They meet everyday troubles, and their responses make character the heart of the collection. The pleasures are quiet ones: family life, good humor, and the chance to see children learn through small experiences.
These stories belong to a tradition of children's writing that brings entertainment and moral lessons together. Coolidge looks at young people with patience and affection, inviting readers to give their small concerns real attention. Read a story at a time, and enjoy a world where growing up means learning how to meet the ordinary demands of daily life.
What you’ll discover
- Childhood seen with affection Meet imperfect young characters whose everyday troubles receive patience, warmth, and good humor.
- Character in everyday life Explore how small experiences become occasions for learning and shaping good habits.
- Home and play Step into gentle family stories that take children's ordinary concerns seriously.
- Lessons with a gentle touch Spend time with stories that bring entertainment and plain moral sense together.
- A story to share Enjoy short pieces whose prose suits reading aloud at bedtime or on quiet afternoons.
Who will love it
Readers who love nursery rhymes, old-fashioned family stories and small adventures will feel at home here, as will parents and grandparents who enjoy reading aloud to children by lamplight.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Curly Locks: a girl on loan
- Goosey Goosey Gander: a boy on the roofs
- Little Bo Peep: a shepherdess without a flock
- Mistress Mary: small kindnesses cure a sulk
- Lady Bird: a mother of dolls
- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: a boy lost in the woods
- Ride a Cock-Horse: a girl meets a circus rider
- Lady Queen Anne: a happy child in hard times
- Up, Up, Up, and Down, Down, Down-Y: a fortune rises and falls
Who’s who
- Johnnie CarrA thin, sentimental girl called Curly, who is lent to a rich lady and soon wants her old home back.
- Mell DavisA dreamy twelve-year-old who loves fairy tales and is left to mind her stepmother's five children for a day.
- Mary ForcytheA minister's daughter who hates moving to Redding until a sewing class gives her a purpose.
- Lota BirdCalled Lady Bird, she rules a garden and a family of dolls while waiting for Papa to come home from China.
- Archie GrayA small boy who slips out at dawn to build a house of sticks in the woods.
- MignonA child equestrienne who loves music and longs for a mother of her own.
- Annie PickensA barefoot Southern girl whose cheerful heart stays bright in a leaking hut.
- May FrisbieThe eldest of the Frisbie girls, who would rather cook and sew than sit in fine clothes.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 5 h 39 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 18 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Nine Little Goslings in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Nine Little Goslings
by Susan Coolidge · 1875
A lost boy in the woods, a girl who waltzes in puddles and a family of dolls fill nine tales of childhood.
Easy read5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Nine Little Goslings is a collection of nine stories for children by Susan Coolidge, the pen name of the American writer who gave the world the Katy books. It opens with a dedication poem to Mother Goose, in which the author imagines the old storyteller sitting unseen beside every cradle.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Curly Locks: a girl on loan
The first story, Curly Locks, belongs to the Carr family, whom readers of What Katy Did will know. Johnnie Carr, ten and a half, has been ill with fever. When she gets up again she is taller, thin and pale, and her hair grows back in tight little curls. Her sisters call her Curly, and she spends her days on the sofa, crying over sad books and complaining that nothing ever happens in Burnet.
One afternoon she sighs over Ellen Montgomery, the heroine of The Wide Wide World, who is taken up by rich relatives. Her sister Clover answers with dry humor. Then Papa walks in with a letter. A lady named Marion Joanna Inches, a school friend of Johnnie's late mother and the source of half her name, wants to stop in Burnet on her way to Mammoth Cave. She is rich, single and lives alone at a village called Inches Mills in Massachusetts.
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What is Nine Little Goslings about?
It is a collection of nine stories for children by Susan Coolidge. Each takes its title from a nursery rhyme and follows a child through a small adventure, such as a lost boy in the woods or a girl adopted for a summer.
Who is Mother Goose in the dedication poem?
Mother Goose is the old storyteller of nursery rhymes. In the opening poem Coolidge imagines her sitting unseen by every cradle, and she offers the book to her as a gift from a grown-up child.
Does Nine Little Goslings connect to What Katy Did?
Yes, in the first story. Johnnie Carr, called Curly, is the younger sister of Katy and Clover from the Katy books, and their father Dr. Carr appears. The other eight stories have their own casts.
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