The 3 Bears and Goldilocks by Margaret Wiley, illustrated by Heather Solomon (Atheneum Books, 2008). Margaret Wiley’s retelling is one I kept thinking of as I pondered this project. In fact, her creative retelling prompted me to consider this project in the first place! Goldilocks is a curious girl, and her father warns her in the beginning to “be careful not to rush headlong into places where you don’t belong.” Of course, when she later goes for a walk in the woods, she comes across a small cabin and her curiosity gets the better of her. When she sees the messy room inside (full of leaves, and berry stems, fish bones, and fur), she helps out by sweeping the floor. When she sees bowls of oatmeal with bugs, bark, grass, and so forth, she picks the uneatable things out and eats the smallest bowl. And the three beds are of pine needles, duck feathers — and then a just right wooly bed!
A note in the beginning of the book indicates that the illustrations are in watercolor, collage, color pencils, acrylic, and oil paint. I love the end result: it is bright and a bit disorganized in a perfect way for the bear’s messy house. Goldilocks and the bears themselves have a memorable look. I liked the emphasis in the story on how bears really live, what they really eat, and what their beds most likely would be made of. Certainly, the story is still a fairy tale, with a didactic message, but even the end has a touch of fairy tale. The bears pity Goldilocks for not having fur, strong teeth, and claws. Goldilocks escapes, determined to better remember her father’s instructions in the future. The mixed media of the illustrations add to the creative and realistic retelling to make this one of my favorite retellings of the story.
