US
When Kid accompanies her parents to New York City for a six-month stint of dog-sitting and home-schooling, she sees what looks like a tiny white cloud on the top of their apartment building.
Rumour says there’s a goat living on the roof, but how can that be?
As Kid soon discovers, a goat on the roof may be the least strange thing about her new home. Painfully shy and too afraid to talk to new people at first, Kid is happy to explore Manhattan, especially the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park, where she meets Will, who is also home-schooled and under the constant watchful eye of his grandmother. As Kid and Will become friends, she learns that Will’s parents died in the Twin Towers. Will can’t look out windows, he is a practitioner of Spoonerism, and he is obsessed with the Ancient Egyptian Tomb of Perneb.
When Kid learns that the goat will bring good luck to whoever sees it, suddenly it becomes very important to know whether the goat on the roof is real. So Kid and Will set out to learn the truth, even if it means confronting their own fears.
Reviews
This idiosyncratic short novel is full of information about New York and its landmarks, including Ground Zero
Sunday Times
Filled with joy, sweet sadness, and a triumph of spirit. Lovely
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
With delicate insight and humor, Fleming cleverly unites people – and goats – from vastly different walks of life in an offbeat celebration of courage and individuality
Booklist (starred review)
A lively yet tender story
Publishers Weekly
The Goat takes a concept easiest told as zany and madcap, but instead wisely presents it as perfectly ordinary. If Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach made a kids’ movie… this would certainly be their script
National Post
At turns funny and affecting, this [is an] ingeniously knitted ensemble piece for 9- to 12-year-olds
Wall Street Journal
Eccentricities abound, but so do charm and warm humor. Perfect for tweens who prefer quiet, character-driven novels and fans of E.L. Konigsburg
School Library Journal
An affectionate and quirky ode to Manhattan
Horn Book
This is a book with much to say; one that will leave the reader with a lot to think about… It celebrates the healing power of friendship. It is, very movingly, about loss. But most of all it says that life is wonderful and goes on despite its many setbacks and tragedies
Magic Fiction Since Potter (blog)
