Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Rediscover the magic of the world's best-loved fairy tales, now enchantingly reimagined by an exceptional group of writers and illustrators. A must for every child's bookshelf.

Hillary Homzie - Children's Literature

This retelling starts out with fresh details and spunk, but as a whole it does not live up to its promise. In this version, Goldilocks enters the bears' home because of the aesthetic appeal of the "red roof and the green shutters" and the "big brass knob" on the front door. Yet, once inside the cottage, Goldilocks mysteriously drops her Martha Stewart persona and takes no more notice of her surroundings. Equally as mysterious, the illustrator begins the tale with a refreshing spread of the bears on skis and of the snow-covered house on stilts. Yet, when the action begins, it is late spring. All of the snow has melted and the forest is bursting with flowers. Another awkward transformation happens towards the end of the tale when Goldilocks suddenly becomes a dreamer who cannot be woken up from her slumber in little bear's bed. While illustrator Debi Gliori does plant flowers in Goldilocks unruly mane, the characterization of a dreamy interloper might have been stronger if the seeds had been planted textually from the beginning. The book ends abruptly and fails to visually resolve with the expected tableau of the three bears. Nevertheless, Gliori's illustrations are warm, sweet and full of glorious details. Despite the missed opportunities textually, the fine illustrations hold this picture book together. 2004 (orig. 1997), Hodder Children's Books, Ages 3 to 6.

Beloved memoirist (A House Unlocked), children's book author (The Ghost of Thomas Kempe), and Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively is perhaps best known for smart, literate thrillers that look to the past for keys to understanding, like 2003's The Photograph. "I'm not an historian," Lively told Britain's The Observer, "but I can get interested -- obsessively interested -- with any aspect of the past."