Meet Greta — the gloriously silly goat of Veronica’s World children’s book series.

Every great ensemble needs a character who gets things magnificently wrong. Who misses the point entirely, arrives at the completely incorrect conclusion with total confidence, and somehow makes everything funnier and warmer in the process.

In Veronica’s World, that character is Greta.

Who is Greta?

Greta is a goat. She is cheerful, enthusiastic, well-meaning, and operating on a slightly different version of reality to everyone else on the farm. She doesn’t get things wrong on purpose — she simply processes the world in her own unique way, arrives at her own unique conclusions, and then acts on them with complete and utter conviction.

The results are, reliably, spectacular.

Greta and Veronica — the thinker and the wildcard

If Veronica is the one who always finds a better way, Greta is the one who finds a completely different way that nobody asked for and that somehow makes everything more complicated and more entertaining at the same time.

Veronica loves Greta. She also finds her deeply, profoundly exhausting. Both of these things are entirely true simultaneously, and that tension is one of the great comic pleasures of the Veronica’s World children’s book series.

Children recognise this dynamic immediately — because every child knows a Greta. And every child has, at some point, been a Greta.

What makes Greta special?

Greta’s silliness is never mean-spirited. She isn’t trying to cause problems — she just genuinely sees things differently. And occasionally, just occasionally, her completely sideways approach to a situation turns out to be exactly what was needed.

She also has an absolute inability to pick up on subtlety, a gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment with complete innocence, and a laugh that is completely impossible not to join in with.

5 things you’ll love about Greta

• She is always, always confident — even when she is spectacularly, demonstrably wrong.
• She means well in every single situation, which makes her impossible to stay cross with.
• Her logic makes perfect sense to her, and she will explain it to you at length if you ask.
• She has said things that have made Veronica close her eyes and breathe very slowly.
• And she gives the best, most enthusiastic, most completely over-the-top reactions to everything.

A goat fact — because Greta would absolutely want this section to be about her

Goats are actually highly intelligent animals with excellent memories and strong problem-solving abilities. They can figure out complex tasks and remember the solutions for years. They are also highly curious and will investigate almost anything — which does explain a few things about Greta, even if the problem-solving part is a work in progress.

Goats are also famously willing to eat almost anything, are remarkably sure-footed on difficult terrain, and are one of the oldest domesticated animals in history. Greta contains multitudes.

Why characters like Greta matter in children’s books

Not every child is the cleverest one in the room. Not every child has the right answer. And children’s books that only celebrate the smartest, quickest, most capable characters send an unintentional message to the children who aren’t those things — that there isn’t a place for them in the story.

Greta says otherwise. She is joyful, loyal, and completely herself — and the farm would be a quieter, duller, less wonderful place without her. That’s a message worth sending. That there is room for all kinds of minds, all kinds of people, and all kinds of ways of moving through the world.

Even the ones that occasionally eat something they definitely shouldn’t. Greta is a goat, after all.

Explore more of Veronica’s World

Greta is just one of the wonderful characters waiting for you in the Veronica’s World children’s book series. Head to veronicacow.com/books/ to get your copies of Books 1 and 2, and join us free below to stay across everything coming next.

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