Ten Winners - the goofy, gleeful and goosey

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Last year, I started out with this idea of presenting various books, movies, characters, songs, TV shows, anything or anyone that had a wonderful element of goof. Only the silliest, funniest and ridiculous could be chosen for a Gooseyness award.

Last Years winners were predominately from books. No surprise there, I read more books than I watch movies. We had Victorian space epics, princesses with gravity problems, or hair problems, a group of  friends with weird hobbies -  the jellyfish obsessed kind - and a girl named September.

I'm starting to better understand what qualifies for a gooseyness award. I made a shelf of books that include some of the winners from last year, and as I was adding books I found other ones that I want to share with you.



There are books here full of gooseyness, see everything written by Daniel Pinkwater and Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching Quartet, while others I didn't included because they only hover on the edge of goosenyess. Like Rick Ridordan's Percy Jackson series, Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, and even Harry Potter. These books are fun and funny, with goofy characters and laugh out loud moments, but they are also filled with action and adventure and sometimes quite a lot of darkness and teenage angst. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I realize that's the point of Snicket's books... but still, that's not a Gooseyness winner.

There are several important qualities for the winners of a Gooseyness Award. The first of all the books, or characters or movies, can't take themselves seriously. Secondly, being an underdog helps; something that isn't so very popular that everyone has read it or heard of it and they even made a movie from it. Thirdly winners tend to have some kind of connection to a fairy tale, or folk tale, though not always.

I've decided to break the following into two parts, for kids and for adults.


Part 1 For Kids ( the top ten list )

Some of these are recent, and I mentioned them before, numerous times in Catherynne Valente's case. The other's I'm shocked and outraged with myself for not having mentioned them before. I won't go into too much detail for all of these, but some I will. Starting with the bottom and working our way up, number ten is . . .

10) The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle by Deva Fagan
Prunella is a witch from the swamplands, and everyone knows how evil those witches are, except Prunella has a little trouble with her curses. She can't seem to do them properly at all. Running away from home might seem like the best thing for her, and finding a lost family heirloom that will get her in the good graces of her grandmother - brilliant! Of course, nothing ever is that simple. Amusing. Fun. Silly. Find out more about her here.

9) The Princess of Neptune by Quentin Dodd
How unusual to see a space fantasy here. More often you see straight fantasy or epic fantasy, fairy tales and occasionally urban fantasy. This one is full of goofiness -the outer space kind.

8) Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Dave Barry is a funny man. I've only read the first in this series of prequels to the familiar story of Peter Pan. It's the little details I enjoy. Like the fact that Captain Hook is called Black Stache, since he doesn't have a hook for a hand yet.

Looking down at the menacing green carpet below, Stache held out his right hand, palm up. Smee studied it for a moment then, concluding they were celebrating their successful climb, reached out his hand and shook Stache's. 

"I DON'T WANT YOUR BLEEDIN' HAND, YOU IDJIT!" bellowed Stache, startling a bright green bird into flight from its perch in the trees just below. "I WANT THE BLEEDIN' SPYGLASS." 

7) Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
It features a walking talking skeleton. The first in the series is the best of them.

6) The Wall and the Wing by Laura Ruby
People can fly in this book. You should read it. There is also a sequel called The Chaos King.

5) Tiffany Aching book quartet by Terry Pratchett

• The Wee Free Men
• A Hat Full of Sky
• Wintersmith
• I Shall Wear Midnight

Why do they win? You might ask. Because of the Nac Mac Feegle (the wee free men), of course. It's hard enough to show accents in a book, but to make them funny as well takes talent: ‘They can tak’ oour lives but they cannae tak’ oour trousers!’ And if I ever make a list of favorite book titles then A Hat Full of Sky will be near the top.

4) Pretty Much anything written by Daniel Pinkwater should win automatically I've decided. I've only read a few of his books, I'll list them now:
The Neddiad How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood and Saved Civilization
The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What Happened to the All the Ghosts, Found Out Where they Went and Went There
(Yes that's the full name of the book, another one of those longer-than-should-be-allowed book titles. Not that I'm really complaining. I tend to enjoy books that have long titles.)
Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl

How do I describe Daniel Pinkwater's books? Bizarre. Quirky. Oh, just read them and see for yourself. I mean, look at those titles. Come on, these books are fantastic. Just the other day I was in the library and thought to myself, I really liked Daniel Pinkwater's books, I wonder if he's going to write another one. Luckily for me, I found Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl, just sitting there on the shelf waiting for me.

If you need a sample of what his books are like, you can listen to his podcast. Currently it features "The Muffin Fiend". His next book is actually available on-line. www.bushmanlives.com

3) Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

A quote for you to consider.

"I was wondering..." he said slowly. "Is that yours?"
He pointed near their feet, at an empty cardboard milk carton. Zanna and Deeba stared at it.
The carton moved eagerly toward them, opening and closing its folded spout. Deeba and Zanna yelped and withdrew their feet. It was one of the pieces of rubbish that had chased them earlier." pg 35

the milk carton named Curdle

Also, in case you didn't know, here's a little quote from the inside book flap: "What is Un Lun Dun? It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up ... where words are alive, a jungle lurks behind the door of an ordinary house, carnivorous giraffes stalk the streets ..."

Stop right there! Carnivorous giraffes? I love it. That's why this book is a winner.

And finally . . .

2) The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones

"Why is this cage empty? The pigs?"
"No, the pigs are free-range. That should be cats," Derek told her. "I think the ones still in there are invisible, but most of them got out through the walls somehow."

1) The Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones

"Someone returned all the stools to the buttery bar, including Wemacht, although nobody liked to sit on Wemacht until the bar became crowded later in the evening. He was easily distinguishable by being taller and gloomier than any of the other stools."

How could I not mention Diana Wynne Jones before? These two books are classic Diana Wynne Jones. The Year of the Griffin is a sequel to the Dark Lord, but it features a griffin as the main character - only Diana Wynne Jones could pull that off as splendidly as she does. They are funny, a little obtuse, but in a good way and it's been so long since I read them I need to go back and reread them. The quotes above amused me, although they probably don't make any sense unless you've read the books. You should by the way.

There you have it. I'll do the Gooseyness Winners for Adults books soon.