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A review by camilleviva
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
4.0
The plot of "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" centres around the light-hearted and comical mission of two children, Grace and Tilly, who are attempting to solve the mystery of their neighbour's disappearance and to literally "find God" somewhere on their street.
But the joy of reading the book comes through as subtle humour, when Grace's naive questions and misinterpretations of religion and social norms reveal ironies about family relationships and communities in the book that often come much closer to 'the truth' than the adult characters are comfortable with.
In this way, the book reminded me of another literary mystery voiced by a child to a similar effect, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." But, "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" switches between child and adult perspectives and has a much heavier thematic focus on neighbourhood and family relationships and what it means to be a "good" person (sometimes it's not as easy as it looks to separate the "goats" from the "sheep"!).
Overall, the characters and their relationships were interesting, the mystery held my attention, and the thematic explorations were interesting and insightful!
But the joy of reading the book comes through as subtle humour, when Grace's naive questions and misinterpretations of religion and social norms reveal ironies about family relationships and communities in the book that often come much closer to 'the truth' than the adult characters are comfortable with.
In this way, the book reminded me of another literary mystery voiced by a child to a similar effect, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." But, "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" switches between child and adult perspectives and has a much heavier thematic focus on neighbourhood and family relationships and what it means to be a "good" person (sometimes it's not as easy as it looks to separate the "goats" from the "sheep"!).
Overall, the characters and their relationships were interesting, the mystery held my attention, and the thematic explorations were interesting and insightful!