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Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose
Join in the fun at this delicious dinner party, where good manners aren't on the menu!
Duck won't eat his carrots. Moth's eating the cloth, and Sheep would rather sleep than wash the dishes. Thank goodness some of the animals know how to behave.
Even the smallest toddler will enjoy the wonderfully silly animal antics in this book -- you've never been to a dinner party like it!
Trademark Julia Donaldson rhymes and rhythms are perfect to read aloud, and Nick Sharratt's mischievous and funny illustrations make the bright and playful Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose a sure winner. Just right for toddlers!
Look out Hippo Has a Hat, Animal Music, Toddle Waddle and Goat Goes to Playgroup.
Duck won't eat his carrots. Moth's eating the cloth, and Sheep would rather sleep than wash the dishes. Thank goodness some of the animals know how to behave.
Even the smallest toddler will enjoy the wonderfully silly animal antics in this book -- you've never been to a dinner party like it!
Trademark Julia Donaldson rhymes and rhythms are perfect to read aloud, and Nick Sharratt's mischievous and funny illustrations make the bright and playful Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose a sure winner. Just right for toddlers!
Look out Hippo Has a Hat, Animal Music, Toddle Waddle and Goat Goes to Playgroup.
24 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2005
9 people are currently reading
222 people want to read
About the author
Julia Donaldson
1,232 books1,915 followersGrowing up
I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).
Mary and I were always creating imaginary characters and mimicking real ones, and I used to write shows and choreograph ballets for us. A wind-up gramophone wafted out Chopin waltzes.
I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.
Busking and books
Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.
The busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television. I became an expert at writing to order on such subjects as guinea pigs, window-cleaning and horrible smells. “We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC.
I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs.
One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading.
My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.
I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.
Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.
When I’m not writing I am often performing, at book festivals and in theatres. I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs. When Malcolm can take time off from the hospital he and his guitar come too. and it feels as if we’ve come full circle - back to busking.
I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).
Mary and I were always creating imaginary characters and mimicking real ones, and I used to write shows and choreograph ballets for us. A wind-up gramophone wafted out Chopin waltzes.
I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.
Busking and books
Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.
The busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television. I became an expert at writing to order on such subjects as guinea pigs, window-cleaning and horrible smells. “We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC.
I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs.
One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading.
My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.
I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.
Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.
When I’m not writing I am often performing, at book festivals and in theatres. I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs. When Malcolm can take time off from the hospital he and his guitar come too. and it feels as if we’ve come full circle - back to busking.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 9, 2024
Not enough mousse, not enough goose
February 9, 2024
Good puns, but misleading title - not enough Greedy Goose in the story for this reader
February 3, 2013
This book is about an animal dinner party where not all of the animals show good table manners! Written in a very interesting way to engage young children - Each animal is introduced with a describing word before it and the book has rhyming words in each sentence to capture the reader’s (or listener) attention.
A fun and engaging book that would be appropriate to read to EYFS and also to introduce describing words in writing (sentence structure) for Year Ones. It also has an added touch of humour with an element of being able to predict what is to be anticipated in the following pages; it can easily capture the attention of young listeners till the end of the book .
A fun and engaging book that would be appropriate to read to EYFS and also to introduce describing words in writing (sentence structure) for Year Ones. It also has an added touch of humour with an element of being able to predict what is to be anticipated in the following pages; it can easily capture the attention of young listeners till the end of the book .
November 19, 2023
Wenn ich krank bin, höre und lese ich immer gerne Kinderbücher.
September 18, 2011
Having previously read 'The Gruffalo' by Julia Donaldson, I decided to try and locate another one of her books and across this one.
The cover is pretty simple with the title and an illusraton. The illustration; a goose holding a bowl of mousse, perfectly depicts the title. It gives young readers the chance to look at the picture and link them to the words of the title, a good way of young readers creating an understanding that words have meaning. The writing on the book is large and almost fun to read whilst the background is bright and eye catching, which is always imporant for children.
This is a story about a set of animals having a dinner party. The text is simple and is limited to one sentence on each page. As other Julia Donaldson books, the rhyming is still present, but what stands out to me in particular is the sentence structure. In each sentence there is always an adjective in front of the name of the animal. So, although the senences are not detailed or extensive it still provides an opportunity for young readers to build on their vocabulary. There is an obvious pattern in the senence structure as well as the actual length of each sentence, allowing the reader to anticipate what they are going to find as they turn the page.
The illustrator has done a brilliant job. The pictures are very 'child- friendly' and it has been kept simple. Two animals per page and a table with a blue table cover that is kept a constant. An intriguing part of the illustration are that if looked at carefully, on either side of the illustration a little preview is given of the animal that was shown before or the animal that is coming next. This creates opportunities for pupils to guess what animal may be next and thus gives them a chance to think and access knowledge about animals and their features. The book ends with a funny illusration of all 17 animals sleeping on the same bed. In this page chldren can point to different animals and even be asked to find/ point to a certain animal. They can be asked to label it as well as maybe guess the sounds that some of these animals make, therefore knowledge that extends the actual content of the book.
This book would be brilliant for a teacher to read to children between the age of 4- 5. It can be a fairly interactive book as well as amusing. Pictures can be shown to the class whilst reading so they can attempt to link words to pictures as well as try sound out some words phonetically. This would be a good book to read alone for a child of age 5, as because the words are fairly simple, they can make use of their phonics knowledge.
I have given this book 3 stars simply because it did not enterain me as much as The Gruffalo and I was expecting something more along the lines of her book being witty and funny.
The cover is pretty simple with the title and an illusraton. The illustration; a goose holding a bowl of mousse, perfectly depicts the title. It gives young readers the chance to look at the picture and link them to the words of the title, a good way of young readers creating an understanding that words have meaning. The writing on the book is large and almost fun to read whilst the background is bright and eye catching, which is always imporant for children.
This is a story about a set of animals having a dinner party. The text is simple and is limited to one sentence on each page. As other Julia Donaldson books, the rhyming is still present, but what stands out to me in particular is the sentence structure. In each sentence there is always an adjective in front of the name of the animal. So, although the senences are not detailed or extensive it still provides an opportunity for young readers to build on their vocabulary. There is an obvious pattern in the senence structure as well as the actual length of each sentence, allowing the reader to anticipate what they are going to find as they turn the page.
The illustrator has done a brilliant job. The pictures are very 'child- friendly' and it has been kept simple. Two animals per page and a table with a blue table cover that is kept a constant. An intriguing part of the illustration are that if looked at carefully, on either side of the illustration a little preview is given of the animal that was shown before or the animal that is coming next. This creates opportunities for pupils to guess what animal may be next and thus gives them a chance to think and access knowledge about animals and their features. The book ends with a funny illusration of all 17 animals sleeping on the same bed. In this page chldren can point to different animals and even be asked to find/ point to a certain animal. They can be asked to label it as well as maybe guess the sounds that some of these animals make, therefore knowledge that extends the actual content of the book.
This book would be brilliant for a teacher to read to children between the age of 4- 5. It can be a fairly interactive book as well as amusing. Pictures can be shown to the class whilst reading so they can attempt to link words to pictures as well as try sound out some words phonetically. This would be a good book to read alone for a child of age 5, as because the words are fairly simple, they can make use of their phonics knowledge.
I have given this book 3 stars simply because it did not enterain me as much as The Gruffalo and I was expecting something more along the lines of her book being witty and funny.
February 21, 2014
This book starts off by hungry Seal asking where the meal is. The other animals each follow in turn asking or telling something about the food.
I really enjoyed this book as each page has a partial image of the next animal so if I was reading this to a class I would ask ‘which animal do you think is next’, which encourages the children to participate and then becomes interactive. Another reason I enjoyed this book was that the words rhymed and the story was funny.
This book would be suitable for KS1 children to read by themselves or for EYFS children if someone could read it to them. It could be linked to many themes, such as rhyming in Literacy, farm animals, food etc.
I really enjoyed this book as each page has a partial image of the next animal so if I was reading this to a class I would ask ‘which animal do you think is next’, which encourages the children to participate and then becomes interactive. Another reason I enjoyed this book was that the words rhymed and the story was funny.
This book would be suitable for KS1 children to read by themselves or for EYFS children if someone could read it to them. It could be linked to many themes, such as rhyming in Literacy, farm animals, food etc.
September 9, 2025
I aspire to be fussy duck
December 18, 2024
Absolute top-tier literary fiction,
me and my sister loved it so much, she memorised the whole book and my mum thought she could suddenly read!
My favourite verse was
me and my sister loved it so much, she memorised the whole book and my mum thought she could suddenly read!
My favourite verse was
"Macaroni!" says Shetland pony.
"-its too hot for me," says Chimpanzee.
"So blow on it then," says Mother Hen.
December 5, 2019
Rhyming story of animals eating, underwhelming and mediocre.
January 6, 2020
A fun and exciting book that demonstrates the use of witty one liner rhymes about a range of different animals! I would use this book with younger children to promote a interest in reading
December 22, 2019
In this book, all of the characters are animals, there are no humans in this book. This is a picture book and shows the reader a meal time and the process of it. Each character has one line in the book which describes what they are doing in order to inform the reader. What each animal says also rhymes with what they are (e.g. up - pup, sheep - sleep).
A world-to-text connection can be made using this book. This is that the reader will most likely have carried out many of the things that the animals are doing in their day-to-day life (eating and helping with the washing up).
The illustrations in this book, which are done by Nick Sharratt (well-known as the illustrator of Jacqueline Wilson’s books), are very effective and provide children with a visual image of what is happening without having to read the text and see what the character is saying. This is particularly effective for children who may not be able to read or may have difficulty reading. It also means children are able to read this story independently, whatever their reading level and ability.
A world-to-text connection can be made using this book. This is that the reader will most likely have carried out many of the things that the animals are doing in their day-to-day life (eating and helping with the washing up).
The illustrations in this book, which are done by Nick Sharratt (well-known as the illustrator of Jacqueline Wilson’s books), are very effective and provide children with a visual image of what is happening without having to read the text and see what the character is saying. This is particularly effective for children who may not be able to read or may have difficulty reading. It also means children are able to read this story independently, whatever their reading level and ability.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2020
Jest coś w twórczości Julii Donaldson, co rozgrzewa serce! Zabierając się za tę książeczkę zupełnie nie spodziewałam się, że tak mi się spodoba - a jednak! Niby prosty wierszyk, nic skomplikowanego, ale autorce udało się stworzyć ciepłą całość. To historia jedzenia i przy stole zachowania. Każdy ma inne nawyki, jedne lubi to, drugi tamto. Są tacy, co zachowują się przy stole jak małpy, a są i tacy co zdają się mieć końską etykietę. Choć ilustracje nie podbiły moich "oczu", to i tak się obroniły. Płynnie przechodzą ze strony na stronę ukazując fragmenty następnych. Miłe i urocze. Ach i ten koniec! Słodkość!
July 30, 2019
Welcome to the chaotic dinner party. There are hot macaroni, carrots and chocolate mousse for all. Sadly, some animals have forgotten table manners. But the little reader would relate with them.
Ideal for reading aloud with appealing rhyming text by Julia Donaldson and bubbly illustrations by Nick Sharratt.
Recommended for 2-5 years.
This book has rhyming words and table manners. A good read-aloud choice.
Ideal for reading aloud with appealing rhyming text by Julia Donaldson and bubbly illustrations by Nick Sharratt.
Recommended for 2-5 years.
This book has rhyming words and table manners. A good read-aloud choice.
April 29, 2021
This is on the all-time fav list (I don't make it, the kid does). Rhyming scheme is British (hyena does not climb with "cleaner"!). It is so beloved by the small one that I dare not give it anything but 5 stars
April 9, 2023
This is one of my Granddaughter’s favourite stories, I have to read it in different voices, we read the story then go back to look at the pictures and see what else we can see. A lovely book for toddlers.
September 10, 2017
A classic Donaldson rhyming story with the characteristic Sharratt illustrations.
February 14, 2019
Great way to teach children how to share
October 31, 2019
This was a cute rhyming book about food and animals. Two things many kids love. Simple and clean.
Read
February 18, 2021From Becky
April 28, 2021
Can’t beat a Donaldson! This picture book even had a special paper making it easy for small fingers to turn pages
August 7, 2021
Cute rhyming animal book for just before bed. Aimed at younger children.
January 31, 2023
The book is filled with great but complex examples of phonemes that have more than one grapheme.
September 1, 2023
Great rhymes, but I didn't like the ending, I blame the sheep.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2023
This book has great rhymes that are very funny and engaging.
February 15, 2017
It's about lots of animals that like to eat food, it makes you hungry! The rhyming is funny. I like this.
May 4, 2013
‘Chocolate Mouse for Greedy Goose’ is a fantastic rhyming story about a bunch of animals that cook a meal for each other and have lots of shenanigans along the way. The book is essentially about table manners and Julia Donaldson uses rhyme and lots of adjectives in the story to get children to describe ways of eating and cooking food.
This book is enjoyable especially because of the illustrations by Nick Sharrat, which bring out the comical elements of the story with the different animals making lots of mess and joining in with the preparation of the food.
This story would be perfect for EYFS children, as you could read it to them to generate a discussion about food that they eat at home. This could then progress onto a Literacy activity where children could write a menu for a restaurant. This could then lead onto a UW activity where children could discuss food and where in the world the food comes from. This then could lead to a taster session where children get to try lots of food form around the world.
This book is a definite 4/5.
This book is enjoyable especially because of the illustrations by Nick Sharrat, which bring out the comical elements of the story with the different animals making lots of mess and joining in with the preparation of the food.
This story would be perfect for EYFS children, as you could read it to them to generate a discussion about food that they eat at home. This could then progress onto a Literacy activity where children could write a menu for a restaurant. This could then lead onto a UW activity where children could discuss food and where in the world the food comes from. This then could lead to a taster session where children get to try lots of food form around the world.
This book is a definite 4/5.
January 3, 2015
This story revolves around a group of animals and their behaviour at during dinner. It is a picture book with simple text, limited to one sentence per page.
In each sentence there is always an adjective in front of the name of the animal which children will find funny and memorable.
Used as whole class reading for younger children, this book could be useful for working on sentence structure and the use of adjectives/meaning and context as well as exploring cross curricular skills (PHSE)to provoke meaningful and thoughtful discussions - manners, right and wrong behaviour etc.
Fun and colourful, very readable and a must for the shelf!
Recommended ages: 4-7
In each sentence there is always an adjective in front of the name of the animal which children will find funny and memorable.
Used as whole class reading for younger children, this book could be useful for working on sentence structure and the use of adjectives/meaning and context as well as exploring cross curricular skills (PHSE)to provoke meaningful and thoughtful discussions - manners, right and wrong behaviour etc.
Fun and colourful, very readable and a must for the shelf!
Recommended ages: 4-7
May 5, 2014
Dinner Party! But what’s that? Fussy duck won’t eat carrots, greedy goose eats all the moose and furry mole licks the bowls so nothing left for the sad white swan! A brightly illustrated, delightful rhyming picture book with a cast including an angry rabbit, tablecloth eating moth and a lazy sheep that would just rather sleep! Perfect for reading out aloud with varying vocal tones to further engross young children in the meal time behaviours of the featuring animals.
Recommended for younger children (3 to 5 year olds) could be used as the foundation for introducing animals or discussing table manners and appropriate behaviour during meal times.
Recommended for younger children (3 to 5 year olds) could be used as the foundation for introducing animals or discussing table manners and appropriate behaviour during meal times.
October 27, 2014
My youngest son's favorite book. The colors, the animals, and the sequence in the story are just right. And the point of the book is subtle. I just thought they were eating a meal. But some more official thing said it was to teach table manners. Who knew?
Plus the paper is a bit thicker than normal, so my youngest (who isn't that careful with books) doesn't rip anything.
I'd give this book a 3 star rating. But my son (the intended audience) would rate it as 5. So he wins. :)
Plus the paper is a bit thicker than normal, so my youngest (who isn't that careful with books) doesn't rip anything.
I'd give this book a 3 star rating. But my son (the intended audience) would rate it as 5. So he wins. :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews