Customer Reviews

Three Good Deeds

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Howard is a mischievous boy who, along with his friends, likes to pull pranks on the villagers of Dumphrey's Mill. Their latest victim is the supposed old witch who lives by Goose Pond. They find the elderly lady strange due to the fact that she lives on her own and tends to a flock of geese that live on the pond. They do mean things like tease the geese and steal their eggs. When Howard decides to steal from a nest one day, he is caught red-handed and accidentally breaks a couple of the eggs.

Fed up with the boy's antics, the old witch turns Howard into a goose! Howard understandably panics and tries to call for help, but realizes unfortunately that only the witch and her gaggle of geese can understand him. The witch tells the goose-boy that in order to redeem himself and be turned back, he must accomplish three good deeds. Howard thinks that the situation is silly, but quickly realizes the benefits (and disadvantages) of being a goose. From complimenting one of his new feathered friends to escaping poultry-hungry villagers, Howard discovers the person or goose he's meant to be.

THREE GOOD DEEDS is a funny, thoughtful story with a bittersweet conclusion. Readers may be a bit disappointed at the story's sudden ending, but they will enjoy Howard's quest to find his inner golden goose.

It was a normal day of pulling pranks with his best friend for Howard, until he finds himself alone at the local pond. Then, when in the middle of a prank, Howard gets turned into a goose by the local witch who wishes to teach him a lesson. He is told the only way to undo the spell is to do three good deeds.

This is the story of Howard's quest to do these three good deeds. He quickly realizes that it's not as easy as it seems in the beginning. True "good deeds" are not done with any expectation attached. They must come from the heart. This book allows young readers to discover with Howard the importance of compassion and sincerity even in those little daily tasks. Through some goose humor readers learn that even the small things count. Readers will stay entertained with pond scene images as Howard tries to make his life on the pond successful, all the while trying to achieve his good deeds. The rather abrupt and unexpected ending will illustrate for readers that even a prank-pulling boy can care for others.

This fun to read book is sure to please many readers. The humor and vivid imagery of life on the pond will keep the pages turning. The important message of helping others, just because it is the right thing to do, shines through without overpowering the book. For a read-aloud, or individual reading material, this book is highly recommended!

Howard is your typical nice, yet sometimes not-so-nice young boy. For one thing, he loves to play pranks, especially on defenseless geese and the poor old women who look like witches.

One day he tries to steal goose eggs from an old woman in his town, with disastrous consequences. This old woman, you see, happens to be a real witch who, to teach him a lesson, turns him into a goose. There's only one way for Howard to break the witch's curse and turn back into a boy: he must do three good deeds.

Easier said than done. As Howard tries to think up possible good deeds, he goes into a self-discovering journey without even realizing it, and becomes a much better person for it.

Three Good Deeds is a delight to read. The dialogue is engaging and the visual images transport the reader to the pond with the geese. The devious simplicity of the tale is what makes this book stand out. This is one of those excellent books which can work on two levels: as a light, fun, superficial story, and as a deeper, more complex one with a serious theme.

The author doesn't "spell out" the obvious to the young reader, allowing them to find out why Howard's presumably "good" deeds are not really good deeds at all. The ending is touching and transcends the more common, cute endings in many middle-reader novels published these days. Though actually serious in tone, it serves to both contrast and complement the earlier part of the book beautifully.

Armchair Interviews says: Three Good Deeds is highly recommended for ages 8-12.

As an elementary school librarian I read a lot of books for kids and to kids. This book hooked me right away with it's entertaining story about a boy being held responsible for his bad behavior. The book is funny and would make an excellent read aloud. It also would be a great choice for a child who is just getting started reading novels. I really enjoyed it.... until I got to the ending.....

What a let down! The ending wraps up the entire in the most ridiculous ending I have ever read. I think most readers would be greatly disappointed in the conclusion and some would actually be "creeped out" by it.

It's really rather sad because the book is AWESOME up until page 136.

Howard should not have teased the witch, but he did, and she turned him into a goose. To reverse the spell, he must do 3 good deeds -- which is not easy for a goose....and especially not easy for Howard in the best of circumstances! At the beginning of this book for 3rd to 5th graders, the reader is amused, and feels that Howard's punishment is appropriate. His best friend chases him away -- after all, he is just a goose, and an annoying one, at that.

But the story becomes sad and pathetic as days and weeks and months go by, and Howard is still a goose. His parents search, grieving, for Howard, never realizing that the flapping goose in the neighborhood is their son. As the witch keeps an eye on him, Howard wonders if he will ever get home.

A rather depressing tale, and not a satisfying ending. Of course, part of the problem is that I am a parent, and hate to think of the desperation I would feel if one of my children disappeared. Perhaps children reading this would not worry about the parents' emotions.

Have you ever taunted a person? Or maybe got a punishment from doing it? Well if you have done that, you've probably acted like this boy named Howard. He's gotten into this kind of stuff once.

This book called "Three Good Deeds" was written by an authour named Vivian Vande Velde.

Howard was naughty when he stole the witch's geese eggs. After naughty Howard had done that, the witch put on a spell, meaning that he's turned into a goose, and also is supposed to complete all three good deeds in order to become a boy again. He also meets other geese at this place called "Goose Pond". A lot of geese have weird names, but Howard's name is pronounced "How-Word".

The main important key for Howard is, as I said, to complete all three good deeds. But he can't do the same thing over and over, he has to do certain things, like rescueing other geese who are in a help of need. Every time Howard completes a good deed, he would feel a bubbling sensationof the spell meaning he did one out of the three.

Once he's done what's he's told, the spell is finally done and the witch turned him back into a boy. But something unusual happened: the witch had died because of old age. On the bright side, everything's back to normal.

So yeah. That was what the whole problem in the story was about. I really enjoyed this book when I got it. On other notice, I would highly reccomend this book because this was... pretty funny for me. And when I enjoyed it, I think you would enjoy this humor from the book too.

My 4th grade class selected this book as their favorite out of all the 2008 Connecticut Nutmeg nominees. I read it aloud to my class over a period of two weeks, and we had many lively discussions about the story, some good laughs over the dimwittedness of the main character, a boy who's turned into a goose by a witch, as he tries to solve his problems and get turned back into a boy.

With the exception of scenes involving one character, Bone Beak/Beak Crusher, the book moved along well and provided lots of entertainment as well as learning opportunities. Many of the students in my class read along with me, and the book has become a favorite.

Three Good Deeds is a good book. I bought it for my daughter for when she gets older. It's a cute little story with a good moral behind it. Vivian does it again. I recommend this book along with her other books.

Howard was a cruel boy until one day the local witch decided to teach him a lesson. She turned Howard into a goose and informed him that he would stay a goose until he committed three good deeds. Nice lessons ensue as Howard attempts to accomplish his three good deeds and turn back into a boy. The deeds and lessons are sweet, but the ending was a little rushed and kind of harsh for little kids. I read this book to see if it would be appropriate to recommend to a young girl. For a young girl (or boy) around 10 or so, this was a nice book, even with the ending.

Three Good Deeds by Vivian Velde is a book about a boy named Howard who trespasses into an old woman's house,that everyone calls a `'witch''. Howard tries to steal her goose eggs, but she stops him and turns him into a goose. Now if Howard ever wants to be a human boy again, he has to do three good deeds.

Howard has trouble doing his good deeds because he is a bad child and doesn't know it. Howard's best friend, Roscoe, and a girl named Alina go to Goose Pond where Howard was. Roscoe is as bad as Howard so Howard new he was looking for trouble. Alina is very stuck, even though Howard is always nice to her.

My favorite part of this book was when Howard finds an egg and tries to find the mother, but the mother said it will never hatch so she gave it to Howard, and he tries to hatch it.

I like this book because it was funny, sad, and exciting. This book was one of my very favorite books. I liked it because it taught me a lesson that it never hurts to do a good deed. I wanted to keep reading it over and over again because it was so good.