Brief writing that holds little substance. Simple illustrations carry the story's message. No human facial expressions but a fully drawn cow face is an odd choice that gives a soulless impression. Sharply paced. Lacks character development and the characters that appear are gone in a blink of an eye. Unimportant and easily replaceable setting. Boring narrative that fails to capture my attention. Overall, not a good read.

A cute book about how we each are part of the picture and what we do can affect others. This would be a good book for preschool children to read with an adult or have an adult read it to them. The simple illustrations make the words pop.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.

This is a sweet picture book about giving and receiving, about working together to achieve something. The drawings look beautiful and the message this book gives is good.

A boy is given the gift of water and bread by the goat on the mountain and is instructed to think ahead about what has been given to him. The child decides to eat the bread, and instead gives the water to the soil. In return the grass grows, becoming food for the cow, which gives milk to the boy. He gives the milk to the smith who, in return, gives the child scissors he made. The scissors are given to the tailor who uses them to make a coat, which the boy gives to the doctor... and thus the story continues. In a cycle of exchange of goods, the tale finalizes with the child and his father taking a nap after they have built a cabin together. Although the story falls short on fluid, narrative structure and in character development, the story does tap into an interesting idea of exchanging resources and trading for goods. The concept of economics can make an interesting reading material for upper grade students who are able to delve deeper into this topic, along with exploring the author’s message and intention. Unfortunately for younger readers, the main character’s journey is unclear, and the random appearance of characters might leave them lost, with a feeling of uncertainty. The highly digital imagery produces monotonous backgrounds, and the lack of facial features on the characters is distracting. However, in the end, the title and concept of the story are intriguing, and have great potential if approached appropriately.

NetGalley review

Read this to my niece and nephews ages 9, 6, 2

They loved it and the colorful artwork. Laughter and giggled throughout the whole reading.
Highly recommend.

This was a very cute book. I could see a lot of people really enjoying this. The cover and title is what drew me in, but the story is what kept me reading!

Easy to follow for Kindergarten and Preschoolers to be read aloud during carpet time.

Illustrations are clear to the reader.

This is a perfect fable for teaching the lesson of stepping stones toward a future plan. The illustrations were beautiful and even younger grades will understand this message.

What a fun, imaginative book! A little boy runs to a mountain where he meets a goat. The goat gives him water and bread. He tells the boy to do as he wishes but to think ahead. This young boy turns out to be the master planner and winds up with something wonderful at the end of the story. Amélie Touchet has contributed delightful illustrations. Siamak Taghaddos' book is based on an old Persian poem. It teaches the value of planning ahead, behaving wisely, and being resourceful. The Mountain and the Goat is an impressive modern fable.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poetti Publishing. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book supplied by Poetti Publishing via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I feel like the message of this story was very important. I felt like the illustrations could have been a bit more complex to further compliment the story.

This book didn't entirely work for me, because the flow of the story was a little strange, and the point was somewhat obscure. I loved the illustrations, which were the best part of it for me.

The points around reciprocity and cooperation were well made, but I would have preferred a more well-rounded story. It gets 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

This book is very This is the House that Jack Built. I'd rather it were about a goat. We need more goat books. It doesn't flow very well and just sort of ends. I guess you could say it's a story about the global economy and how we can all work together. But that feels like a stretch.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I read this one to my niece and nephew and they loved it! The story was short and easy to read. The pictures were also so pretty. The kids tend to get distracted quickly with stories but this one held their attention! Many thanks for this cute ARC.

I read this for my brother as a bed time story. He enjoyed it! We read it twice since we have been reading out loud to help him with his pronunciation.

My only qualm is that I wish it was a little bit longer and it would have been nice to see more of the got since my brother likes animals so much.

But the storyline of how everything connects in the world was kinda cool to me. Everything has a purpose in life.

I love the basis of this story. The way this child went through the different phases and the reciprocation.

The mountain and the Goat teach a cute lesson on reciprocity and what can come from it. Everyone has their part to play in this world. And the more we function in this understanding and respect it - life could flow easier.

The ending was beautiful.


We volunteered to read an ARC of this book through NetGalley.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC ebook. This is a unique picture book. There’s a goat, glasses, lumber…and more. My kids didn’t mind. It just flows in a funny way and ends rather abruptly. Fun for kids, leaves adults scratching their heads.

I really wanted to read it, based on the cover and the word 'goat' in the title. One could say that I am rather font of goats. From other reviews I read that it had some sort of rhythm or rhyme, but that wasn't there when I read the story. And since it's a colourbook with pictures I would say that it's a children's book, so the text and story should be interesting for a young audience who has a low attention span (they need to develop it over the years). The text was too plain and the story had indeed a purpose but wouldn't be interesting to a young child. The purpose of the story was trading and how effective it could be. I think that this is a topic to learn for a later age. Perhaps the story could have been about sharing or something similar, that would be good to learn for a small child.

Thank you for the advanced reader copy of The Mountain and the Goat by Siamak Taghaddos.

Very simple little story that probably will be mildly interesting to younger children. Decent enough illustrations.
i did like the message of trying to think ahead instead of your immediate desires and needs.

<b>Cute book with great visuals </b>

First things first, it ought to be mentioned that the illustrator did a great job with the visuals and if it weren't for the length of the book(that was unsatisfactorily short), this book would have got a higher rating. I personally loved the moral and believe children should be inculcated with the economic lessons of resourcefulness and give/take at quite an early age. My only complaint is I would have liked this book a little longer.

The Mountain and the Goat is a simple child friendly story of resourcefulness.

Unfortunately I wanted to give this one more stars but felt it may be a bit too simple as there was no way to connect to the characters.

However the illustrations were colourful, engaging and did help to keep you interested.