Borka: the adventures of a Goose with no feathers by John Burningham

Little Borka is born without feathers. Her mother knits her a woollen jersey (jumper or sweater) but of course this useless for flying and hopeless for swimming. I love the names of his siblings: Freda; Archie; Jennifer; Oswald; and Timothy.

Then, as you might have anticipated, the geese all fly away migrating to a warmer climate and poor young Borka is left behind. Luckily, he is befriended by a ship's dog and at the end of a long voyage he finds himself in London, in Kew Gardens. I love the final sentence:

"So if you are in Kew Gardens and you see a goose who looks somehow different from the others - it might well be Borka." and when I read this book to groups of young children I would add - why not go up and say hello!

I spied this book at a recent charity book sale for just $1 and considering this book was published in 1963 (paperback edition 1992) it is in a fabulous condition.

The best book to pair with Borka is of course the fairy tale The Ugly Duckling. 

I read somewhere that the art of John Burningham can be divided into several categories. Borka is from his first period along with books like these:

Later John Burningham produced books like Simp, Oi, Get off our Train, Would you rather?, Courtney, Mr Gumpy's Outing, Come away from the Water Shirley, Where's Julius, Avocado Baby, and Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present.

This is my favourite John Burningham book. Simp was originally titled Cannonball Simp and decades ago I found an amazing almost silent movie (not an animation) of Simp which was captivating. 

My own first encounter with the art of John Burningham was in the book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.