Sylvie is a storybook heroine princess. Sylvie and her family live within the pages of a book called The Great Good Thing, waiting for a Reader so they can act out their story. Unlike the other characters, Sylvie is tired of the same old story. Sylvie’s story is filled with adventure and good deeds, but while waiting for a Reader she has plenty of time to dream of having new adventures and doing even greater deeds.

After many years on a dusty shelf, The Great Good Thing finally has a new Reader, Claire. As the storybook characters scramble to their places, Sylvie breaks the first storybook rule Never look at the Reader. As Claire reads and rereads her favorite storybook, Sylvie catches glimpses of Claire’s world. One night Claire falls asleep with the book open beside her on the bed and Sylvie discovers she can cross from the book to Claire’s dreams. Despite protests from her parents, who can’t understand her desire for more than what is written, Sylvie repeatedly visits Claire’s dreams. Sylvie helps Claire come to terms with the sickness and eventual death of her grandmother. During this time Sylvie realizes that Claire’s grandmother is actually the girl with the dark blue eyes, the First Reader of The Great Good Thing.

When a fire threatens to destroy the book, Sylvie leads the other storybook characters over into Claire’s dreams. There they meet up with the girl with the dark blue eyes and other people from Claire’s past who now live on in her mind. Eventually the storybook characters move from Claire’s dreams to her subconscious and try to rebuild their castle and relive their story. One day the girl with the dark blue eyes comes to bring Sylvie back to Claire’s conscious mind so Claire will remember the story and tell it to her daughter, Lily.

When Sylvie returns to the kingdom in Claire’s subconscious she becomes aware that the story is changing, and not for the better. The castle is falling apart and the king has been usurped. Sylvie is the only one from her story who realizes the danger if the story falls apart. When the girl with the dark blue eyes returns and tells the characters that Claire is dying, Sylvie is the only one willing to leave the kingdom and attempt an uncertain crossing. Sylvie returns to Claire’s conscious mind so Claire will remind Lily of the story. Eventually Lily dreams of The Great Good Thing and Sylvie crosses, alone, to Lily’s dreams.

In Lily’s conscious mind Sylvie works to remind Lily, an aspiring author, of the story and encourages her to write it down. When The Great Good Thing is finally republished Sylvie is reunited with her family and friends, including a few who were not in the original story.


The Great Good Thing is an original fantasy that will appeal to children who love to lose themselves in a book. The idea of storybook characters having a hidden life of their own is intriguing. In the background of Claire’s life you see situations that many young people have to face, the loss of a loved one, bullying brothers, adolescent infatuations, financial problems, and family tensions. Sylvie performs one of her greatest good things by helping Claire deal with these issues.

The only thing about this story that I found disappointing was in the underdevelopment of a couple of characters. Most of the storybook characters couldn’t develop beyond the way they were first written. This was an integral aspect of the story, but a couple of characters showed the potential to change and develop and then seemed to be forgotten. However, this didn’t really detract from my overall positive impression of this story.


Recommended: Yes