A review by gracepizza40
The Fledgling by Jane Langton

2.0

2. I didn't know this was the fourth book in the series woops. I just picked it from a box of books someone donated to us because the cover looked interesting. And it was a Newbery!
Spoiler Why didn't Georgie's family make efforts to talk to her about the goose prince? At first, they didn't believe her (Uncle Freddy- he also was embarrassing on page 26), and then they only thought it was just from her imagination and treated it flippantly like a childish phase (e.g Uncle Freddy at the dinner table). They did not take her seriously. Georgie was then left to suffer and deal with the situation herself even after the infuriating drive home from Mr. Preek (he literally forced her in his car and proceeded to silently judge her...) and when the goose prince got shot. The family didn't believe Georgie about her being able to fly, and the parents were worrying about her instead of actually asking and listening to her. (Aunt Alex should have talked to her about it.) That is sad. People don't try to understand children and think they are doing random, senseless things sometimes and laugh. :( Ms. Prawn is annoying. I get not liking children, but she is strange to try and use Georgie for her selfish wants. Also, the letters to Mr. Preek encouraged him to shoot and kill the goose prince. Mr. Preek is a very selfish, greedy, and bad man. He should be found out and punished. And he was proud of himself for "protecting" Georgie and shooting the goose prince! He thinks he's a hero. He thought of Georgie as "probably stupid. You could always tell. She might even be retarded."(p. 43) in the car ride after scaring the goose away when she wanted to meet the goose instead.
SpoilerThose words are ableist and are very commonly used today (especially words like stupid, crazy, lame, dumb, nuts... link)
But years ago they were used to describe the disabled.
"I am the sort of the man who loves children, Mr. Preek often said to himself." Yeah, right. In conclusion, Mr. Preek is yucky.