Gorky Rises

by William Steig

One fresh and fair summer day, as soon as his parents go out, Gorky sets up his laboratory by the kitchen sink to have another try at concocting a magic potion. This time he strikes upon the missing ingredient--half a bottle of his mother's attar of roses--and he knows it's success at last.
While he is waiting for the bubbly, glinting liquid to show what it can do, he heads over to Elephant Rock, "his best spot for doing nothing." But on the way he stops to bask in the sun, soon falls asleep--and wakes to find himself floating in the immensely blue sky, clutching his bottle of magic.
There follows the most astonishing, bewildering, and bedazzling adventure a young frog could possibly have. Orbiting the globe has its ups and downs, however, and Gorky soon begins to wonder if he'll ever get back to earth. He does manage to outwit the magic; but the potion saves a last surprise until Gorky reaches Elephant Rock, just on day later than he had planned.

Gorky Rises is a 1980 New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year, Notable Children's Book of the Year, and Outstanding Book of the Year.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fantasy, Magic, Animals, Adventure, Classics

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

William Steig was born in New York City in 1907. In a family where every member was involved in the arts, it was not surprising that Steig became an artist.

He published his first children's book, Roland the Minstrel Pig, in 1968, embarking on a new and very different career.

Steig's books reflect his conviction that children want the security of a devoted family and friends. When Sylvester, Farmer Palmer, Abel, Pearl, Gorky, Solomon, and Irene eventually get home, their families are all waiting, and beginning with Amos & Boris, friendship is celebrated in story after story.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gorky Rises is cute but lacking Steig's usual inventiveness. The story is about a frog who discovers he's able to float (and gently fly) with help from a potion he concocts. He floats some distance, going missing from home, worrying his parents.

The story is so simple and insubstantial that it's hard to believe it's by the same man who wrote the excellent Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and Doctor De Soto. I was startled that Steig chose to express the depth of the parents' worry by saying they wanted to kill themselves. I understand he meant that they were worried beyond reason, but references to suicide have no place in a children's book. On a positive note, I do love how Steig's adorable character illustrations are consistent across most of his books, giving the impression that all the stories take place in the same community.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

“There was nothing around him but the secret, silent night, the sea of blinking stars.”

Can frogs fly? In Steig's world they do! All it takes is a little magic.

One morning, Gorky whips up a magical, bubbly liquid in his kitchen and sets out to enjoy the day with the special concoction all bottled up for travel. He walks and walks in the fresh air and sun until he needs a rest. Gorky falls into a peaceful sleep under the wide, blue sky. But when he wakes up, Gorky is in the sky! Gorky rises and floats high above the green grass and babbling brooks on the ground. And the world watches in wonder as he floats on by. You will too!

Wow. This book surprised me. It has such a quiet joy about it. The words and colors and action all come together to create a sense of peace on the page. From “cloverous” smells to the warm embrace of the sun to twiddling toes! The words and descriptions paint such clear images in my head and heart. Bedazzles, flabbergasted, doodad, and ZAZOOM were just a few of my favorite words to see and say out loud. And this line…

“The wide, open sky outside him was bright with brilliant sun, but the sky inside him shimmered with stars.”

I love that! I'm going to hold on to that line.

I know Mr. Steig has written some award winners and classics over the years. But Gorky is my favorite by far. Come see Gorky rise! He’s filled with surprises. I mean…come on! You have to read to see if he comes back down. :)

Highly recommended.

[Mairi Kinda Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

GORKY RISES GORKY RISES GORKY RISES ALL HAIL GORKY I LOVE GORKY‼️🗣️

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything I love about Steig: humor, philosophy, unexpected events, brilliantly beautiful vocabulary, and a bit of darkness.

People are ridiculously afraid of darkness or death in children's books, yet children are drawn to it. The parents are the ones who are afraid to have conversations with their kids about something so huge that affects us all, which only fuels a child's desire to learn more.

[Bruno Pizani · Rating 5 out of 5]

literary masterpiece — up there with pride and prejudice, frankenstein, the count of monte cristo, etc

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read better flying-children stories, but this was pleasing in its dreamlike quality (slightly spoiler by the ending with the parents).

Gorky could've used more personality. Steig always draws about the same animals so it feels like they should be the characters from his other books, although as far as I know they aren't meant to be.

I liked that the potion worked while in the bottle, magically.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gorky has a magical adventure. His parents worried about his unknown whereabouts and were "ready to kill themselves." The couple of lines of that completely destroyed this tad-bit boring story for me.

[Little D · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son really loved this book, I only gave it 3 stars beach use of one little line, "by now, they were so worried they were ready to kill themselves just to end their misery"
This really has no place in a children's book.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This classic William Steig tale tells the adventures of Gorky, a young frog scientist and inventor, who concocts a magic potion that defies gravity. His trip through the skies enables him to view the world from a new angle and contemplate the meaning of life. After weathering a terrifying storm, he hangs in the night sky asking himself questions like, "Did anyone know where he was? Did, God, for example, know?" or, "How could he get back down there, where he belonged?" Read this charming fantasy picture book to find out the fate of Gorky and his magic potion.

This books would work well for a 2nd grade through 5th grade read aloud, especially as a book for vocabulary study. In typical fashion, Steig includes many interesting words like formula, decanted, solemnly. sauntered, and many more.

It would be a great mentor text for an elementary writing unit on adding details to fiction stories and using descriptive language. Instead of, "Gorky saw a snake," Steig writes, "A small, glittery snake came slithering through the grass, slid over Gorky's belly, circled his bottle three times, and wriggled off." This is a great text for showing students how to stretch small moments in writing.

[Jes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, so I actually read this book like a month ago but a dear friend got it for me for Christmas. This book is great not because it's well written and appropriate for children. Honestly, I think it's neither. The book is about a frog dude who raids his parents' dry bar and mixes up a concoction that would have served for natural selection in real life, but since this is a storybook, it causes him to fly in some weird euphoric acid trip. Then he gets "too high" and turns a rock into an elephant. Yeah, I don't know. It's great. It makes no sense.

Best present ever.

[Jeanine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started out well as a good outdoor ed story. It had potion mixing, nature observations, and imagination. However, it became something else. I think the use of words like "stupid" and "sober" were interesting because it literally did feel like a drug metaphor during the middle. Near the end it has two references to death/suicide though which really felt upsetting in a children's book without the space to acknowledge it.

[Faranae · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: suicide (a rather melodramatic line about worried parents)

What a strange book. A little marred by the content warning (it ages the book, I think).

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny. Hadn’t read this Steig before.

[deedee watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

gorky you are so silly and when it said his parents were going to kill themselves over not finding him... right

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorky Mogs on Gogol

[Safina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appropriate for grade 1-3
Summary: Gorky is home alone but he does not worry, he won 19t be bored: it is the perfect time to make a magic potion. He adds a little of this and a little of that, a magic spell and he is ready to go try it out. He goes to his favorite spot: Elephant rock. His potion does more than he expected, soon he goes off floating over his neighborhood, over the town, over the country. Higher and higher he floats. It gets dark He does not know what to do. How will he get down? At the ends he returns home to his anxious parents riding on an elephant. Will his parents believe his story?
Review: As William Steig 19s stories tend to do this story deals with children 19s fascination with magic and brings the protagonist very close to danger, gives him a chance to reflect on the wisdom of his wishes and returns him home safely. Steig knows what is going on in the imaginative mind of children and tells a fun and engaging story, which children want to read over and over.
In class activity:
- Discuss elements of genre: use as example of science fiction, analyze what is the science part of the story, what is the fiction part. Do we know stories that fiction but not science? How about books that are science, not fiction, what do we call those?
- Writing exercise: write about what surprised you in this story.
- Note how Gorky measured his ingredients and what they were. Write a recipe for your own magic potion using various measures.
- Think about the science fiction stories you know, what sciences are involved?

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

In his familiar quirky style, William Steig writes of a frog named Gorky who mixes together a fabulous concotion one day, but isn't sure what the potion is supposed to do.

Gorky finds out what the potion can do when he suddenly rises from the earth without warning, the bottle that contains the special fluid grasped in his hand. Somehow, his liquid creation is causing him to fly through the air without the aid of wings or propeller, to soar through the skies as the incredulous creatures all around stop and stare at the fantastic scene before their eyes.

After a time, Gorky realizes that if he can't stop flying, he will have a problem. What's more, since the magic potion he is holding is the only thing keeping him aloft, if Gorky should fall asleep and drop the bottle, his journey and life will come crashing to a violent end. By using his brain, Gorky engineers a plan to end his adventure and keep himself from harm in the process.

Gorky Rises is an interesting story, creatively envisioned and well told. I might give it one and a half stars.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The world was all magic, and he had a special bottle of it in his right hand."

I can still hear Sophie (about 2.5) saying "Gorky" (with a flawed r sound) in her cute little voice.

Could have been 5 stars. A rock is described as having been there for ten million years, and Gorky's parents consider killing themselves to end the misery of having lost their son (similar to Sylvester and the Magic Pebble).

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, how I do love William Steig's writing! Favorite line: "On the third try he let out a few drops and took such a steep plunge he thought it was goodbye Gorky. It was just one at a time after that."
Wonderful celebration on imagination.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another stupendous Steig - when Gorky concocts a magic potion with an extra large dose of attar of roses to finish it off, he discovers that he can float over the world at his leisure but what does he have to do to return to normal - check it out and you'll see!

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this author.

[Sarah]

Read this one in college, too!

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whee! Gorky rises from the sky. he is now called flying frog. Not just he passes through his house,he passes through the whole village.

[Deb Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story about a flying frog.