The Fledgling Summary
Jane Langton

Everything you need to understand or teach The Fledgling by Jane Langton.

  • The Fledgling Summary & Study Guide

The Fledgling Summary

The Fledgling is a fantasy novel about a Canada goose that teaches Georgie, a little girl, to fly. Her family and several other adults try to prevent Georgie from taking flying lessons. Their idiosyncracies (one plants a garden of plastic roses, one thinks the goose is a giant duck) and their bumbling attempts to stop Georgie make the book alternately funny and sad. The action moves specifically and rapidly, with frequent shifts of attention between characters.

Young readers will see aspects of their own lives reflected in the characters' problems and pleasures of growing up.

Georgie, Eddy, and Eleanor experience sibling rivalry, adults not listening to their opinions and wishes, pressures to conform, and homework. Georgie, the youngest, also experiences being able to see, hear, smell, and move better than adults, as well as being able to transform the world into what it might be, not what it...

(read more from the Short Guide)