The Trouble with Goats and Sheep: A Novel

I bought this book because it got excellent ratings and sounded as though it would be one that my nine-year-granddaughter might enjoy since the story is about two ten-year-old girls trying to solve the mystery of Mrs. Creasy’s disappearance. None of the adults take religion seriously, but the girls hear the vicar say that God is everywhere so they search for Him, thinking He will take care of Mrs. Creasy. By the end of the book the girls have come to the conclusion that (1) religion is superstition (2) prayer is ineffectual (3) Jesus was crucified because he was ‘different’-- a goat rather than a sheep.
The author must have thought the book suitable for young people since she includes two pages of questions—obviously written for adolescents—asking how they feel about various characters’ actions.

As I read the first chapter I found that Ms. Cannon is a gifted and creative author, but I felt that some of the figures of speech and references to English life in the mid 1900’s where probably beyond my granddaughter’s experience. I continued to read the book myself since I was intrigued by the story.
While the author makes a valid point of the need for kindness and non-judgmental inclusion of those, who are ‘different’, her dialog is increasingly
filled with profanity, including the ‘F’ word. I was particularly offended by her very frequent use of the Lord’s name as a curse word.

Delightful story told from the viewpoint of two 10 yr old girls. I love the way you gradually find out the character of the various neighbors and how their prejudices affect the neighborhood. Some are "sheep" and others are "goats."

The 2 girls were so different yet so close. This story had everything and I loved the detailed descriptions of the surroundings, homes and people they encountered during the mysterious search for the missing woman.

Lovely perspective to this book and I enjoyed the innocent comments made by the young girls in the story.I did not know what to expect as this book was recommended by a stranger at a bus stop and was pleasantly surprised by the unusual way in which it was written.

The 2 girls were so different yet so close. This story had everything and I loved the detailed descriptions of the surroundings, homes and people they encountered during the mysterious search for the missing woman.

Lovely perspective to this book and I enjoyed the innocent comments made by the young girls in the story.I did not know what to expect as this book was recommended by a stranger at a bus stop and was pleasantly surprised by the unusual way in which it was written.

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I found this book mediocre reading. The story line was anything but fascinating and I would not recommend it. I bought it from a recommendation of "best new writer" but I think it needs working on. Sorry.

Beautifully-written novel reminiscent, in some ways, of To Kill a Mockingbird, although the book is set in England. A story of small-town judgment, as seen through the eyes of two young girls, as they embark on a quest to "find God" whom their vicar said was everywhere. The simplicity, innocence and unabashed curiosity of childhood shines, as the girls expose the ridiculousness of being an adult and the secrets people accumulate, as they age. Well worth reading.

Not impressed. And honestly, didn't finish it either. It dragged so much. Unnecessary dialogue, and details, and not enough mystery. I did not like any of the characters, including the two little girls. I don't like the way Grace treats her friend, and their search for God was just weird. The whole reference to sheep and goats...also weird.

The adults were all loathsome. The disappearance of Mrs. Creasy unexciting. It went on for so long with no progress that 70% into the book I just skimmed through the rest of it, found out what happened in the end (which was super disappointing and anticlimactic) and put the book down, once and for all.

I personally don't recommend it, and can't comprehend all the rave reviews.

This first novel is every bit as wonderful as the main character, an engaging 10 year old, Grace Bennett. It is beautifully written, with humour and with tenderness. It reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Grace lives at number 4 the Avenue, a housing estate, England. It is summer – the relentlessly hot English summer of 1976. The long holiday stretches out in front of her – she comes up with a plan, a project.

Grace is a smart cookie. She likes to ask big questions – where is God? Specifically where is God in the Avenue. The issue has been given some urgency by the sudden disappearance of one of her neighbours – Mrs Creasy has vanished into the haze of a hot July day. How did God let that happen? If she can locate him perhaps she can recover the missing Mrs Creasy.

Grace enlists the assistance of her best friend, the fragile Tilly. They proceed to investigate. They knock on doors and direct probing questions at the adults. Eric Lamb, Dorothy Forbes, Sheila Dakin, Brian Roper – do you believe in God? The Avenue has its own Boo Radley – Walter Bishop. Grace and Tilly are warned NOT to go to number 11.

As the story unfolds we learn of other mysteries unearthed by the disappearance – an abducted baby, a fatal house fire.

Much of the narrative is provided by the canny Grace – with shrewd observations and hilarious comments on the behaviour of her elders. Her account is alternated with that of her neighbours. Each giving away a little bit of their stories, their pasts and fears for the future, anxieties and worries, their secrets - especially their secrets.

The resolution of the various mysteries is expertly managed by the author.

The title refers to the Last Judgement. This exercises Grace somewhat. Who are the sheep and who the goats, she wonders. The author too will invite us to make our own minds on her characters – sheep or goat? Don’t rush to judgement.

It is not a religious book as such, but something shimmers in the intense summer heat, that makes this novel a little bit special.

A bewitching read.

Actually, it is such a poorly written book I wouldn't give it even one star. The characters are stereotypes; none of them are developed. The constant use of metaphor is laborsone. Everything is personified: Sidewalks, shoes, curtains, any and everything. Did this author have an editor?

Also bewildered, not just by the positive reviews, but by the tone of them. Charming? Lighthearted? Whimsical? Much of the book centers on (not a spoiler, this is very early) the murder of a sick elderly woman. Most of the book is set nine years later as a woman from the neighborhood vanishes and two ten-year-olds set out to find her (and Jesus) but stir up some of the secrets surrounding the murder. And yet... the author doesn't really care that this old woman was killed nor does much of anything actually happen. The suggestion, made more and more strongly as the book continues through invocations of the Bible and Jesus, is that somehow the secrets coming out will heal the community, but how do you make up for murder? (I actually went back and double-checked the early part of the book; yes, a sick old woman is murdered. Didn't get that wrong. Didn't find it charming, either.)
The book itself unravels, too. By the end ridiculous coincidences come fast and hard-- from a child being mean to a friend JUST BEFORE that friend goes to the hospital for reasons having nothing to do with the meanness but just in time to teach an important lesson about kindness, to the weather providing a dramatic thunderstorm just in time for... well, there's no ending. One of those books with no ending. Everyone stands around waiting to see if the big reveal will happen but... Of course, the thing is, if the Big Reveal did happen it would be the police showing up, what with the killing, but it's as if the author wants you to forget that an actual human being got murdered. And apparently a lot of readers went with it. Seriously, what was charming about this as a story, or satisfying about it as a book? (I did get it's a heavy-handed religious parable, yes, what with the direct Bible quoting, but that didn't do much for me as a reader either.) Wish I could get back the time I spent on this.

This was a fun read which stars a very precocious, 10 year old, Grace and her best friend Tilly. The story is set in 1976 in a small town in England, actually a length of road where everyone knows everyone else and there are secrets behind every door.

Grace thinks it’s going to be quite a hot and boring summer until a neighbor, Margaret Creasy disappears and no one seems to know anything about where or why she has left. Grace and Tilly set about finding the answer to this mystery as they pose as Girl Scouts trying to earn a badge. The dialogue between the girls and the neighbors is at times really hilarious and at other times just a little too quaint to feel real to me. Since this is a British book it might be why I have trouble identifying with the girls or any of the neighbors. I raised my family of four daughters in a suburb of a large Midwestern city and at 10 I feel as though my daughters, growing up in the 70’s, were more mature than these two and more knowledgeable. They certainly wouldn’t have believed that “they saw God in a drain pipe”.

But the story is about friendship, love, coming of age, secrets and even some prejudice. Behind the mystery of Margaret’s disappearance is a secret that the neighborhood has kept for twenty years. The neighbors all knew Margaret since she liked to visit and was a good listener. They are somewhat worried that she has discovered their secrets. The story is predominantly told from first person narrative with Grace being the narrator. However at times the story shifts perspective and is told by one neighbor or another. How much did Margaret really know? Why did she leave and how?

I thought the pace was a little slow and honestly the ending wasn’t very satisfying for me. I know that I’m in the minority here as most readers seem to love this book. I appreciate the skill that it takes to write from a child’s perspective and I think the writing is very good. I kept wondering why all of these people were at home all of the time and seemed to have nothing but time to spend on spying on their neighbors! I also wish that with all of the build up there would have been a more exciting ending.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest r

I am hesitant to write because, quite frankly, I read a comment posted to another low-star reviewer which was just plain nasty. So, of you are a nasty commentor, write your own positive, glowing review again. So here I go. I was really excited about this book and got it from the library......no, it is not a verified the store purchase or whatever they say. I got 25 pages in and my head was spinning so fast with metaphors, similes, strange people and even stranger relationships, that I had to stop for awhile. I started reading again later and realized that this is one depressing, gray and troubling book that is appropriate for a psychiatrist to have written. I'm out- back to the library this little dandy goes! I gave it two stars instead of one because the lessons on writing tools that I mentioned in my title are abundant.

Mrs. Creasy has gone missing and the entire estate is abuzz. Especially the residents of the Avenue. Mrs. Creasy was friend (confidant, even) to all--and knew the secrets that lived behind closed doors. She knew the secrets of number 8 and number 12 and even the beleaguered number 11.

Grace and Tilly set out to solve the mystery of her disappearance, starting in church by asking God to find Mrs. Creasy. After the service the vicar tells Grace that “we can stop people from disappearing by helping them find God.”

“Where do you find God?” Gracie asks.
“He’s everywhere. Everywhere.” The vicar waved his arms around to show me. “You just have to look.”
“And if we find God, everyone will be safe?” I said.
“Of course.”

And in true ten-year-old fashion, the girls take him literally and set out to find God. Grace and Tilly go undercover, pretending to work on the trouble with goats and sheep earning Brownie badges as they dust, sweep, and garden their way into neighbors’ lives. On the Avenue they find neighbors who have struggles and secrets aplenty: an alcoholic, a grieving widower, a couple slipping towards dementia, an aging bachelor, the neighborhood pariah. And each of their stories is overshadowed by a time nine years earlier when a baby disappeared and a man’s house was lost in a fire.

The story had some similarities to Alan Bradley’s Flavia De Luce series: a precocious little girl tries to straighten out adult matters, and in the process points them towards the truth without even realizing it. It’s also a coming of age story where little Grace idolizes a teenage neighbor and turns her back on her true friend Tilly only to realize that sometimes we’re lucky enough to be given a second chance.

One of the best parts of Goats and Sheep was probably the nods to everyday British what-nots: TV shows, sweets, household products, magazines, etc. I was so taken by the name brands which came so fast and furious that I kept a list: Milk Tray, Fairy Liquid, Quality Street, Babycham, Lime Barrels … oh my! (And I googled every one of them so I could get a peek into Grace’s life.)

Writer Joanna Cannon is also a master of putting words into her characters’ mouths that are rich with irony--most especially when they are discussing an apparition of Jesus that Tilly discovers on a drainpipe. When the reviled Walter Bishop, the novel’s very own Boo Radley, approaches the apparition saying, “I heard about Jesus, and I wondered if I might take a look,” he is turned away when a neighbor tells him, “Jesus isn’t here for just anyone, you know.”

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep is a delight, plain and simple.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is another book that had a huge amount of hype around it so I delved in expecting to find it amusing, witty and full of nostalgia based on the blurb.

For those of us that remember that long hot summer of 76 it did have it's fair share of references that made me stop and think oh yes I recall that, Angel Delight, Jackie, Whimsies and of course the beloved Bay City Rollers so on those merits alone I enjoyed reminiscing.

The story itself though was rather long, drawn out and overly complicated. Set in the perfect gossip spot of a cul-de-sac there is bound to be secrets and scandal. I could just imagine the two young girls investigating the disappearance of a resident, what fun over the holidays!

Unfortunately I didn't gel with any of the characters apart from Grace and Tilly but even they got wearing after a while. I have sat on this review for a long time in case my mind suddenly threw in a ray of hope that I had missed something crucial but it still remains an ok book but it didn't fill me with the wonder that some other readers experienced. I know the author has a new story out now so maybe that one will inspire me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for my copy which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon - I learned about this little gem on NPR's book review section this summer, and librarian Nancy Pearl did not let me down! The focal point of this fiction novel is, Margaret Creasy, who goes missing during the 1976 heat wave in England and two little girls (Grace and Tilly) who set out to find her by searching for God. While Margaret Creasy is the nexus of the book, we never hear from her directly. The book is about her community and its reaction to her disappearance. This book is filled with mystery, suspense, and a dose of spirituality. And there's a little plot twist at the end - but no spoilers here, friends!

The author provided a little bit of everything in this story. There was humor, love, compassion, and more. She created a great sense of tension for the reader in the journey of what happened to Margaret Creasy and why. I also appreciated the relationship between the two little girls. This book took me back to my childhood summers and friendships. I also appreciated Cannon's prose. I made nearly 20 highlights in my Kindle copy. She certainly has a way with words! And as Ms. Pearl noted, there's a cute and touching scene in the book featuring the two girls and a trip to their local library. This was much appreciated by the librarian and also this avid reader!

There are a lot of characters in this book. Putting them together and learning what role they play takes a bit of work. And I will warn you, it takes a little bit to get into the book, but once you're in the meat of the story, I don't think it will let you go. You'll find yourself thinking of the residents of this little community for some time after finishing the book. Many thanks to my local Fort Worth Library for the digital loan!

Recommendation: This is a fun summer read that I think just about anyone would enjoy.

Until next time ... Read on!

Regardless of whether I purchase a book, borrow a book, or am gifted one, my ultimate goal is to be honest, fair, and constructive. I hope you've found this review helpful.

“Everyone was so certain of what had happened, but maybe the present crawled into our memories and disturbed them as well, and perhaps the past wasn’t quite as certain as we would like it to be”

The Trouble With Goats And Sheep is the first novel by British author, Joanna Cannon. During the heatwave of 1976, Margaret Creasy disappears from Number 8 The Avenue. “Mrs Creasy was still missing on Tuesday, and she was even more missing on Wednesday, when she’d arranged to sell raffle tickets for the British Legion. By Thursday, her name was being passed over garden fences and threaded along the queue at shop counters”

Ten-year-old best friends, Grace Bennett and Tilly Albert are as curious as the rest of the street. Did she leave of her own accord, and if so, why? Perhaps she was murdered! Words from the Vicar after church on Sunday (“If God exists in a community, no one will be lost”) set Grace and Tilly on a mission: if they find God (who is EVERYWHERE), perhaps Mrs Creasy (who was nice and was teaching Tilly to knit) will be safe.

As Grace and Tilly search for God, they notice that people in the street are behaving quite strangely. Perhaps it is the heat: “July had found its fiercest day yet. The sky was ironed into an acid blue, and even the clouds had fallen from the edges, leaving a faultless page of summer above our heads”. They are warned to stay away from Number 11 (Walter Bishop’s house) but no one will say exactly why: “It was better for children if they didn’t know all the facts, she’d said, and the words always left her mouth in italics”.

They are fairly sure that Mr Creasy didn’t kill her: he isn’t fat enough and doesn’t have a moustache. Anyway, he’s much too upset: “He missed her reassurance. The way she stole his disquiet and diluted it, and how her unconcern would pull him through their day. She never dismissed his worries, she just disentangled them, smoothing down the edges and spreading them out until they became thin and insignificant”.

Cannon uses multiple narrative strands to tell the story, which covers two months of summer during 1976. Each chapter is headed with a date and an address in The Avenue, so that it is clear whose perspective is being shown. As well as this, Cannon intersperses throughout this, flashbacks to 1967, starting in December and receding some six weeks, tell of incidents that led up to the fire at Walter Bishop’s house. The reader gradually learns why the street is so anxious about the reason Margaret Creasy has left and what will happen when (or if) she returns.

Using young Grace as a narrator is a stroke of genius: her innocence, her youthful perspective and her candour, as well as often being a source of humour, lead to some remarks of profound wisdom and ingenuous prescience. Cannon’s characters are familiar: people we meet every day in the corner shop or on the bus. Each has flaws and secrets: one might say that, except for Tilly Albert, none of the characters is entirely blameless; at one point, even Grace’s behaviour is less than stellar.

The understated cover hides a novel of true brilliance. Cannon explores guilt and grief and shame, the perils of being different, the need to be accepted, and how easily a community will ostracise and persecute. Cannon’s prose is exquisite: it is difficult not to fill a review with quotes like “I had learned not to take any notice, because she carried worrying around with her at all times, like a spare cardigan” and “My mother looked at him and did loud staring” and “…the only sound I could hear, as I lay on the grass, was Mrs Morton’s knitting needles tutting against each other in disapproval”.

Cannon’s plot is original but wholly credible. She skilfully peppers the tale with clues, but even astute readers, those who guess the identity of the arsonist, and that of the baby snatcher well before they are revealed, have a breath-taking shock coming in the last pages. This outstanding debut novel is a moving, thought provoking and delightful read. Highly recommended!

I can’t resist a few more quotes for anyone who enjoyed those already included.
“I watched her without end, inspecting her life for the slightest vibration of change, and yet she knew none of this. My worries were noiseless; a silent obsession that the only friend I had ever made would be taken from me, just because I hadn’t concentrated enough”

“Margaret liked to mend. It made her happy to see things repaired, and the repairing made John feel safe. Now she was gone, he could imagine the threads beginning to loosen and the edges beginning to lift, and all the holes that would form for his life to fall into…Now he had become untethered, drifting between the layers of his own thinking…”

“I wondered where this sense of community was. If it was waiting in the back of Sheila Dakin’s pantry, or hidden in the loneliness of Eric Lamb’s shed. I wondered if it sat with May Roper on her crocheted settee, or scratched itself into the paintwork of Walter Bishop’s rotten windows. Perhaps it was in all of those places, but I had yet to find it”

“It was a very small ‘Oh’, but I had learned from my mother that words didn’t necessarily have to be big to make a good impression on people”

“It’s the small decisions, the ones that slip themselves into your day unnoticed, the ones that wrap their weight in insignificance. These are the decisions that bury you”

“The verge was thick with summer: stitchwort and buttercups, and towering foxgloves which blew clouds of pollen from rich, purple bells. The breeze had dropped, leaving us in a razor of heat which cut into the skin at the tops of my arms and made speaking too much of an effort. We trudged in a single line; silent pilgrims drawn towards a shrine of tea and digestives, all strapped into Sunday clothes and decorated in sweat”

“The past is another country; they do things differently there,” or at least that’s what L.P. Hartley thought. Personally, I’m not sure. The years certainly appear to change us and the world we live in but really we can’t break with the past – we carry it with us.

I’ve been giving the matter some thought as, “The Trouble with Goats and Sheep,” is a novel set firmly in a street on a housing estate in the English Midlands in the 1960’s and 70’s, an environment sufficiently close to the time and place of my own upbringing for me to recognize some characteristic features. And the estate Cannon describes probably still exists today, although with the addition of a few front porches and kitchen extensions. Perhaps they do do things differently there now – but I doubt it.

In creating this familiar but by-gone world Joanna Cannon name-drops freely, which certainly elicits a wave of nostalgia in me but probably leaves younger readers cold. So, for their benefit here comes a key to some of the references she makes in the first few pages: Harold Wilson (pipe-smoking Labour policitian), Hillman Hunter (not a film star but a British-made car), Angel Delight (powdered dessert which Wikipedia assures me still exists but if so – why?), Space hoppers (children’s toys guaranteed to swell admissions to local Casualty Departments by 20%) and Artic roll (the only appropriate way to finish any meal which starts with a prawn cocktail.)

This is a novel set in the claustrophobic world of respectable, lower-middle and working class homes, where keeping up appearances is an act of will and of self-preservation, where families may seem not to pry, but still take a deep interest in each other’s lives. In it neighbours are united by a shared secret, a shameful event from years before, whose uncovering threatens the precarious suburban harmony.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is absorbing, being a sort of cross between Coronation Street and To Kill a Mockingbird – and let’s be honest – that’s not a combination you run across every day. Like the TV soap, you get to learn about the ways individuals shape a place for themselves in their families, how different families interact with each other and how events in the outside word impinge on close-knit communities. And when seen through a child’s eyes the English Midlands, like Harper Lee’s American South, becomes more mysterious, more absurd and more frightening than the adults living there like to acknowledge. Where grown-ups in a small community accept the received wisdom of the group a little too willingly, children become the unwitting force for change with their awkward questions and uncomfortable observations.

This all sounds a bit heavy but in fact the novel is often very funny. It is kids’ views of, and interactions with, their neighbours as they go about trying to solve the disappearance of Mrs Creasy, which made me smile. The author has a great ear for dialogue and her children are treated with sympathy but, thank goodness, without sentimentality. The not-quite-lost world of suburban England in the 1960’s and 70’s has found a trustworthy guide in Joanna Cannon.

It's summer of 1976, very hot, unremittingly hot, and Mrs. Creasy is missing from her home on "the Avenue", as the residents call it. Where she has gone and why no one seems to know, but two local girls, Grace and Tilly, aged 10, decide to make it their summer mission to investigate. Their goal: to find God in the Avenue! And how to do this? By learning more about the people they have lived with all of their lives...actually talking with them in ways that only 10 year olds would or could.

And thus we are introduced to a neighborhood of individuals and families often ill at ease with their present and past, living with secrets and lies totally unknown to the young girls. The search for God does open up all types of conversations within the small community, as everyone wonders what has happened to Mrs. Creasy. The feeling of unease increases with the heat which is a heavy and appropriate metaphor. Such a comparison of innocence and complicity. I am not going to go further as I do not want to give spoilers. The fun of this novel is in the interactions, how all the characters, old and young, pull each other off course or drive them on. Such is life!

Grace and Tilly, thank you for the journey around your neighborhood. Joanna Cannon, thank you for a different take on the lingering effects of secrets and lies on people's lives.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

What a lovely unexpected treat. The book was recommended to me by a niece in law. She gave me a cursory description so I didn't really know what to expect. Turns out that this debut novel is written with such charm and insight. The basic story line is of a woman in 1970's England who goes missing from her village. But much like Hitchcock and his McGuffins this is just a device to allow our main two characters to appear and lead us on an exploration of the village and a search for God. Grace and Tilly are elementary age girls who decide that since God knows everything and keeps everyone safe, per the local vicar, they need to find God and get this all sorted out. What ensues is two girls finding out about their neighbors' interior lives, figuratively and literally.
What I liked most about this book was the author's style of writing. She cleverly uses phrases and specific descriptive words to convey volumes. If you're a reader who enjoys the words as well as the story line this could be a lovely surprise for you as well.

I was charmed from the start with the main character, Grace Bennett, an inquisitive ten-year old girl with an active imagination, and her friend, Tilly. It is beautifully written, with humour and with tenderness.

The cast of characters, including Grace and Tilly live in a housing development in England. It is a persistently hot summer, 1976. With the days of vacation ahead, Grace, and by association, must find an adventure to cure the boredom with endless days with nothing to do. One of their neighbors, Mrs. Creasy, has gone missing, and with knowing that “only God knows” where she has gone off to, Grace makes it their business to find out. First things first, though. If God is the only one who knows, then what better place to start than by asking Him? Where should they start to look for Him? Their adventure begins at the church, but it doesn’t end there. There’s a lot of knocking on doors, asking questions, posing as Girl Scouts out to do a good deed, girls who eventually steer the conversation around to God and the missing neighbor. This isn’t too difficult, as most of the neighbors appreciate the company and someone to listen to them talk about anything and everyone.

It’s a fairly typical, small neighborhood filled with people who know each other’s business, personal and otherwise, and most of them have lived there long enough to know each others secrets. Do those secrets have anything to do with their neighbor’s disappearance?

The girls have been warned never to go to the house where Walter Bishop lives, Number 11. He’s a bit of an odd one, and the neighborhood has suspicions about him. Then again, they have their suspicions about anyone new, or anyone ”different” in any way.

The characters in this book are so well drawn I could easily imagine this place, these people, this place and time. All in all, a lovely debut novel.

Many thanks to Scribner, NetGalley, and to the author, Joanna Cannon for providing me with an advance copy to read.

Some people love the anonymity of living in a city, feel at home in any city. Others, love the small town feeling, knowing their neighbors, being part of their lives. Of course, we never know all there is to know of other’s lives, even those with whom we live. This novel is not knowing and finding out about the inner lives of the people who live on one street in England, in 1976. The novel revolves around secrets.

Grace, the first narrator, tell us that all the streets in her estate are named after trees, a lovely little setting fact. The description makes the whole estate situation sound like a nice place to live. Of course, the opposite is true. The major plot point is that one of the residents of their street, referred to as the avenue throughout the novel, has gone missing. Mrs. Margaret Creasy, according to her husband, John, walked out of the house and never returned.

Gracie and her best friend, Tilly, become the seekers of truth. At the young age of ten, two girls are looking for answers about life, the difference between goats and sheep. They want to find Mrs. Creasy and in the process, they do learn a few things about life, mostly by listening and watching the adults on the avenue. On the surface it seems that like any other small town or neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else’s business. As readers, we get to learn quite a bit about all the citizens of the avenue. Some of the observations come from the precocious girls, Gracie and Tilly, and the rest is up to we adults who know better or the characters, themselves, to confide their human burdens, the sorrows, the losses, and the joys.

In the troubling times that are today, an outsider is at the core of this novel set in 1976. Otherness is a huge issue and Joanna Cannon gives it the attention it deserves with a deft hand. It is not only England that struggles with coming to terms with the other, the world as we know it today, June/2016, is filled with hate for the other. Things have not changed all that much since 1976 when it comes to this human fear. Through her writing, JC is giving us huge things to think about in her first novel: well done.

As an earlier reviewer noted, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is not a book to be rushed. In fact, it is so finely wrought that half-way through, I found myself rushing, and I went back and started the novel a second time, better understanding the layout of the Avenue on which much of the story takes place, and getting a better sense of the characters who live along it. I know that this is a novel that I will read again and that as I do it, I will get even more of the nuances and richness.

The novel is complicated and does much to show that no matter how ordinary or boring they may seem on the surface, all people are complicated. I appreciate that Cannon is able to write in such a way that I am not really thinking "oh, this is a subplot," and "oh good, back to the main story." Instead, all plots are important and weave together in unexpected ways.

Finally, I appreciated Cannon's precision with the props of middle-class life in 1970s Britain. Her respect for material culture, for pop culture, and for history is unsurpassed. For this reason, I would not trust purchasing the U.S. edition of this book for fear that many subtleties would be translated for American readers and in so doing, the art of this novel will be compromised. I purchased the Borough Press edition, ISBN 978-0-00-813216-5. With the help of a smart phone near my easy chair, I was able to Google unfamiliar terms (often of foods), and thus picture clearly the settings in which the novel unfolds.

I enjoyed The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, which reminded me of Michael Frayn's Spies. Both books follow a pair of young friends as they play amateur sleuth, solving a mystery but simultaneously uncovering secrets the adults around them would have much preferred to remain hidden. In fact, the cover copy from my 2002 hardcover of Spies serves equally well as a summary of Cannon's novel:

"In gripping prose, charged with emotional intensity, [The Trouble with Goats and Sheep] reaches into the moral confusion of youth to reveal a reality filled with deceptions and betrayals, where the ties of friendship, marriage, and family are threatened by cowardice[.] ... [Cannon] powerfully demonstrates ... that what appears to be happening in front of our eyes often turns out to be something we can't see at all."

This is not to say that Cannon's book is derivative; her pre-adolescent girl protagonists, particularly Grace, the first-person narrator of the story, have their own voices and their own sets of foibles and blind spots. Cannon's decision to present events from the viewpoint of ten-year-old Grace (rather than as the recollection of an adult Grace) is a wise one; while at least one reviewer has noted that Grace is smarter, more observant, and more well-spoken than your average ten-year-old, her point of view keeps the reader in the moment, puzzling out clues at the same time as Grace and Tilly and being carried along by their youthful momentum.

There are other pleasures to be found here as well. Cannon writes perfect descriptions of such varied phenomena as early widowhood ("forced her to weave a life from other people's remnants"), terraced houses ("handcuffed families together through chance and coincidence), and the saccharine taste of certain childless older women:

"I stared at the room. It looked as though someone might have served it into the house with an ice cream scoop. Even the things that weren’t pink had a mention of it, as if they hadn’t been allowed through the door without making a firm commitment."

Fans of both literary fiction and mysteries (not that those categories are mutually exclusive) will find The Trouble with Goats and Sheep appealing.

I received a free copy of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon is a highly recommended debut novel featuring two ten year old girls who decide to look for God and solve a mystery.

It is the summer of 1976 and a heat wave has swept England. What is really troublesome is that Mrs. Creasy has disappeared from the cul-de-sac and no one knows why. Friends Grace and Tilly decide, after a casual conversation with the vicar, to search for God and Mrs. Creasy at the same time. Interestingly enough, the girls figure out that the adults around them aren't all being completely honest when answering their questions and it seems that the adults around them are hiding something. What all the adults seem to agree on is that Grace and Tilly should stay away from #11.

The title of the novel refers to a parable where Jesus is separating good from evil, explaining it as separating the sheep from the goats. The novel almost acts like a parable itself, showing how the truth will eventually be revealed and the hypocrisy of judging others without acknowledging your own involvement in wrong doing. (See the parable "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Matthew 7:3) The citizens on the cul-de-sac firmly believe all their actions are just and they blame Walter Bishop in #11 (their goat, or scapegoat) for all manner of crimes.

Chapters alternate between the present day, 1976, and events occurring 9 years earlier, in 1967. It seems to Grace and Till that the adults are hiding some secrets from that time and apparently Mrs. Creasy had begun to figure out some of the lies. The events of 1967 begin to explain some of the events of 1976. Each chapter begins with the date and address, making it clear which neighbor is narrating that piece of the puzzle. This is a very engaging story and you will want to figure out what exactly happened in 1967 that has all these people blaming Walter Bishop for, well, everything.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a well written debut novel that combines a mystery with a coming-of-age story. Grace sounds much older than ten, so I simply mentally made her a couple years older and went on with the story. Admittedly, finding the image of Christ on a drainpipe was a bit of an eye-roller for me. It felt like it sent things too far over the top and made what was allegorical and symbolic into more of a farce. The end was a surprise.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

4★
A wonderful debut novel.

Inventive descriptions abound in this apparently simple story of a lady who goes missing in a small English village neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the publisher has requested no quotations from a review copy, so I’ve got holes in my tongue from biting it!

This is told partly by 10-year old Gracie, in the present, and partly by the neighbours in the present and in flashbacks. I like Gracie’s parts the best. It does jump back and forth between times and points of view, and a few names are similar (Sheila and Sylvie), which didn’t help me remember who was who.

Gracie and Tilly, her delicate best friend, decide that God would be able to save the missing lady, Margaret Creasy, so they decide to search everyone’s house for God (because He's everywhere), including the scary man whom everyone accuses of being a baby-snatcher (Gracie was that baby, found safe) and probable kiddy-fiddler. Tilly reckons Walter’s not a murderer because murderers are fatter and have mustaches. I did enjoy these girls!

Gracie and Tilly learn in church that the shepherd separates the goats and sheep because, they presume, he doesn’t like the goats because the sheep feed and clothe him and the goats don’t, so the goats will go to eternal punishment. And God does that with people, so Walter Bishop seems destined to be a goat. What’s more, his house burned down with his mother in it, and that must mean something, too.

The word “scapegoat” is never used, but Walter is blamed for everything that goes wrong in the village. His house is a constant target for kids shouting obscenities and throwing rocks, and he is the subject of gossip and even informal town meetings. They now conclude that Walter has murdered Margaret – all they need to do is prove it.

Margaret’s husband says he misses that she “disentangled” his worries, and that now silence happens everywhere. Others miss her for various reasons, some because she may know some secrets.

There are some townsfolk who are obviously frightened to tell what we think they know. Some of the men are scary, as one women remembers “her own father, and all the other men who came wrapped in harmless packaging.” [Sorry, Scribners, and for the next one too.]

I appreciate descriptive passages, but I was annoyed to have quite so many complicated versions of words filling mouths or spilling out or rolling down the road or whatever. I almost started to keep count.

But then I would read this and think, perfect!

“Everything is in chaos. The avenue looks as if someone has shaken all the contents and tipped them back out onto the street."

Cannon shows a lot of talent here, and I’d have enjoyed it even more if Gracie had told the story and if Tilly had been a bigger character, rather than just a foil for Gracie. I love the way the author shows us how their minds work.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribners for a copy for review. (I couldn't resist a couple of small quotes.)

Mrs. Creasy has disappeared and Grace and Tilly take it upon themselves to find her....

Written in a very engaging way, Cannon's debut is a charming and enjoyable read. I immediately took a liking to Grace and opened up my heart to Tilly. They are two very curious and bright girls who assume that in finding God Mrs. Creasy will be found and return to her home.

There is this nostalgic and retro feel to the story. The 70's, during which the story takes place, come alive through details of the surroundings and the various neighbours, each one of them having their oddities and secrets. Amusing and entertaining, I would love to read more by this author!

Review copy supplied by publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a rating and/or review.

For young Grace, the disappearance of a neighbor changes her life in ways she can not imagine. Along with her friend TIlly, she embarks on a relentless search for the truth of what has happened. Along the way, long-buried secrets of her seemingly placid street are revealed. At the end of the book, the reader is left questioning just who is a sheep and who is a goat. Answering that question is much more complex than at first appearance.

I really enjoyed reading this book and was pleased to discover that it made me think about how I judge others in my own life. Grace does a lot of growing up in this novel, and it is a beautiful coming of age story, bringing to mind Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird". Recommended!

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for providing a complementary eARC for review purposes.

Some reviewers call this novel "a delight" and "an utter joy." Hm. Others "haunting." The cover of the book leads you to believe it is a lighthearted look at a small English village from the eyes of a child. Well...yes and no. The children might see it that way. But we are adults. And, when you're through with the book, you realize what a horrifying story it is. The adults in it are horrible, horrible people. Every one of them except one, who makes no appearance in the story until the very end and we never even get to meet her. There's very little hope in this book, but you can't tell, because the tone is rather light. Can you imagine a book about atrocities written in a light-hearted tone? These are people who unite over prejudices, small-mindedness, and hatred born of fear. I guess it is a cautionary tale. And maybe the lighthearted tone refers to the surface of things. So there's lots to think about in the choices the author made in presenting the story to us. Good choice for a book group discussion. You don't have to like the book to have a good discussion, after all.

But the girls are looking for God, remember. Literally. Is he in this room? Not in the way someone treats his neighbor (which, good luck in this village), but they are looking for an actual person. They sort of find Jesus in a kind of offensive way (to Christians). And the parable of the sheep and the goats...well, no one in this town is going to heaven, if you follow the author's line of thinking.

This is not a Christian book. This is a book written by someone who wants to use some of the Bible as a literary tool, is all.

But my major complaint is that at the end I had many questions. I don't mind loose ends, but this was more like the ends were there, but awfully difficult to find. I could go back and re-read, but I won't. So there!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Scribner publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest and open review.
This is a delightful novel that I would never have guessed was a debut. Ms Cannon writes like a very experienced author.
It's a charming story and the young girls, Grace and Tilly amused me and had me giggling at times.
I remember the long, hot summer of 1976 and this book brought back memories of that time.
I'll definitely be recommending this book and will look forward to reading more by Ms Cannon.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Joanna Cannon, author; Paula Wilcox, narrator
In the summer of 1976, the result of what I will call groupthink* came to roost in a quiet English neighborhood. Most of the action takes place on The Avenue, a street in a quiet community in England where homogeneity is the ultimate goal of all of the residents. It is a more innocent time, in this small, tight knit neighborhood of simple people who lack sophistication, resent outsiders and pride themselves on knowing each other’s business and of often believing they know what is best for each other. They seem naturally suspicious of anyone different, but, as a unit, they protect each other from outside scrutiny as they maintain a false picture of a just and harmonious community. Beneath the surface of camaraderie, seeds of suspicion and distrust have been planted, and soon they begin to grow into full-fledged doubts. The Avenue has witnessed a series of events which have both united and divided the residents. Some have circled the wagons to protect each other, to hide their secrets, and some have begun to question their original motives and actions. When a neighbor suddenly goes missing, they fear that their secrets have been uncovered and some grow very fearful of exposure. One neighbor fans their fear with her remarks. She seems to want to reinvent the mob mentality that once ruled the street with tragic consequences. Cracks appear in their united front as neighbor begins to suspect neighbor of wrongdoing.
When two ten-year-old children learn of the mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Margaret Creasy, Grace, the more sophisticated of the two, convinces Tilly to lie with her and pretend they are Brownies, working on a badge. In that way they can visit the neighbors and ask questions as they investigate the whereabouts of a woman they liked very much and hoped would return. **They begin their quest as a search to find G-d, since G-d is everywhere and must know where Margaret Creasy has gone. As they travel the avenue, questioning one then another of their neighbors, they hear them begin to buzz with their suspicions about why Margaret Creasy left. Her husband insists she will surely be back because she would never miss their anniversary. Some begin to suspect foul play and point a finger again, at a neighbor they dislike and have ostracized for years, have blamed for crimes, based on circumstantial evidence and prejudice. Walter Bishop is different and not welcome on their avenue and is the accused.
Many of the residents have made mistakes they have hidden and for which they have blamed others. Their behavior going forward was colored with their shame and guilt, but rarely with remorse. To be fair, the neighbors lacked sophistication. They were all flawed in some way. While they lived with their personal shame, they shamefully took their pain out on others.
***Which of the neighbors were sheep and which were goats? Were they all a part of each? Could they find redemption? What seemed like a simple story, at first, about a woman who disappears, begins to have a deeper secret hidden within it, like that in the parable of the goats and the sheep. Will the two ten year old girls find G-d and/or Margaret Creasy? The book is written with the voice and mindset of a ten year old and it is often humorous with guileless dialogue that comes out of the mouths of babes and encourages chuckling. The young sleuths are charming and the author’s prose is lyrical. The subject matter is clean without filthy language or sex.
The narrator does a great job of expressing the personality of each of the characters, young and old. She defines the childlike voices of Grace Bennett and her friend Tilly and perfectly captures the edge in some of the other characters, their meanness, their shame, their innocence, their differences, using a separate voice for each of them and a different pattern to depict their personalities. Grace’s strength, Tilly’s naïveté, Sheila’s suspicious nature, Mrs. Morton’s humiliation and resultant resentment, Walter Bishop’s strangeness which influences the communities reaction to him, Thin Brian’s lack of confidence, Eric’s equanimity, the tormented Sheila who is ashamed of her past and the racism of some of the neighbors comes alive with her interpretation.
When the book concludes, we don’t discover the final consequences of this community’s code of silence, but we do know that when Mrs. Creasy returns, she will bring with her the certain knowledge of events that she was never meant to discover, knowledge of their secrets, knowledge which will make them face and stare down at their own guilt and shameful behavior, behavior that in the eyes of G-d would possibly make them goats, creatures to be banished from the community, consigned to the fires of Hell. Those they persecuted and ostracized might very well be the ones to sit beside the right hand of G-d. Were some of the characters a combination of sheep and goat or were they simply goats in sheep’s clothing? Are we all part goat and sheep. Does the goat rule in some of us and the sheep in others? Are innocent children the only pure sheep? Another question is, if there is a path to redemption, why do they not take it? If G-d accepts everyone, why would he shun goats? Many other questions will remain for discussion.
One explanation of the parable when referring to the death of Jesus, is that he was condemned, not for a real crime, but for the perceived crime of being different, of having different ideas, and of behaving differently, not fitting in with the crowd. I thought of our current election season in America, in 2016, in which the rhetoric and insults, one to another, simply point out the differences that exist and will not be tolerated by some, publicly crying out for unity, while they privately speak out against it. I believe that the parable of the goats and sheep is meant to teach people to accept and love each other, even with their differences, rather than to judge and condemn each other for being different. After all, are we not all the same? Don’t we stand united and fall divided? That is the message that the book imparted to me.

*”According to Wikipedia, Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision making outcome.” Other sites describe it in a similar fashion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
**The girl’s search for answers seems loosely based on the parable that refers to sheep and goats. In their quest, the girls find out that there are “goats” who will be banished from the left side of G-d, because they are the troublemakers, and there are sheep that will sit on the right side of G-d because they are the peacemakers.” (http://www.gotquestions.org/parable-sheep-goats.html)
***“The core message of the Parable of the Sheep and Goats is that God’s people will love others. Good works will result from our relationship to the Shepherd. Followers of Christ will treat others with kindness, serving them as if they were serving Christ himself. The unregenerate live in the opposite manner. While “goats” can indeed perform acts of kindness and charity, their hearts are not right with God, and their actions are not for the right purpose – to honor and worship God.”
(http://www.gotquestions.org/parable-sheep-goats.html)
While the book seems to have a connection to the parable, it is not a book about religion, it is more about righteousness and having faith in something. It should be good reading for everyone.

Very smart start, evocative read, compelling story line but as another reader commented one gets totally confused and the whodunit never really gets resolved. You are left carrying a lot of threads and the tapestry has come unravelled! It seems to me that with the gem of a story that Ms. Cannon created here, a bit more work with the editors, or just putting it aside and coming back to it for a re-write would have created a much more compelling, finished product. It's almost like the author started off with one aim, got excited about how her characters were developing, so she dumped the original storyline to chase them down their rabbit holes. And then suddenly remembered she needed to deliver a book and so completed it totally ad hoc. Quite disappointing after a captivating read. I wonder if it represents this rush to get published or lower quality of publishing editors. Sometimes it's best to take ones time writing, editing and honing the craft especially with such great talent to back it up.

Beautifully written novel about how secrets and crowd behavior are incredibly destructive- over both the short and the long term. Grace and Tilly, the 10 year old "detectives" prompt all sorts of memories for the adults hunting for a missing woman. Both are rendered wonderfully- I could see Tilly with her hat and sweater. The adults are equally well written. This is a careful measured book that defies characterization-= it's sort of a mystery but more of a cautionary tale. It's not a quick read because you will want to savor the nuance but you will find it hard to put dwn. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC_ highly recommend this. I'm looking forward to more from Cannon.

Interesting book. I liked the dialogue between the girls and adults. Humorous at times. A slowly unfolding story of neighborhood secrets. I would have given a higher rating, but the ending......There was no ending.....no resolution. That was disappointing.

A very talented author, she just needs a little help.

This was such a mixed reading experience for me. I enjoyed the nostalgic reminder of a long hot summer in 1976, and some of the writing was witty and astutely observant of girls' friendships, people's motives, neighbourhood relationships with their prejudices, support and misunderstandings, the claustrophobia of family life with its deceits and dependences. But the idea of Tilly and Grace's mission to look for God amongst the inhabitants of The Avenue, doesn't hold true for the length of the book. The mysterious disappearance of Mrs Creasy and the secrets of the street become too drawn out, and occasionally the girls' dialogue is mawkish or too engineered. The amount of Angel Delight eaten (or not eaten) becomes a stylistic device as do a few phrases which lose their momentum owing to repetition. Yet there is also good writing and the atmosphere of a troubled street during a very hot summer which made an on and off engaging story.

An unusual story, maybe a little over-long, but the characters are so well drawn that you will have strong reactions to all of them, most especially Grace and Tilly. In spite of the drawn-out narrative and some plot inconsistencies, I liked this enough for a 4 star rating. I like books that evoke an emotional response, and this one most definitely did.

I really enjoyed this book, partly because it resonated with me as it made me reflect on my own 70's childhood. It had a range of characters within which most people would recognise the characteristics of someone that they know! The children are well portrayed and I liked the way that humour was well balanced with some lessons in life and humanity. I felt it was a morality tale well masked with irony and comedy and I would recommend it.

Enjoyed the writing style of this book. The perspective of what's going on changes by the different character and the two girls weave into the whole story - not just from their view. The ending was a real surprise for me!

Mrs. Creasy has disappeared. Enter 10-year-old Grace and her best friend Tilly. They are determined to get to the bottom of the mystery in the most logical fashion possible: by finding God. After all, God protects all his sheep and brings them home. Of course, the job of finding both God and missing neighbor becomes very complicated when all the adults are around you are keeping secrets...

This book is nicely written, although perhaps a bit overdone at times. It did seem like 10 is too old for a child to think there is a physical manifestation of the Lord Almighty hiding out in one of the neighbors' houses. However, Grace and Tilly are lovable characters that leave you with a smile. None of the adult characters left me with a similarly positive impression, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding a neighborhood fire grew tiresome. The book both started and ended strong, but the middle sagged.

The book started out good, I liked the little girls. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, most of them I didn't like too much. There is a mystery going on that just fizzles out. I don't really know what happened after getting to the end of the story. LOUSY ENDING!