Goldilocks – a tale of a chocolate-filled-little-girl-bonbon

What happens when you take Mo Willems and give him free reign on Goldilocks? The awesome book Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs.

“Once upon a time there were three hungry Dinosaurs. One day – for no particular reason, the three Dinosaurs made up their beds, positioned their chairs just so, and cooked up three bowls of delicious chocolate pudding at varying temperatures.” And then, for no particular reason, they went “Someplace Else and were definitely not hiding in the woods waiting for an unsuspecting kid to come by.”

So begins the re-imagined tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The dinosaurs laugh mischievously and place signs directing Goldilocks to their house, and try to not give away the fact that they are setting a trap for her. “Either way, Goldilocks was not the type of little girl who listened to anyone or anything” like not barging into other people’s houses. She sucks down three enormous bowls of chocolate pudding, who cares about the temperature, it was chocolate, and needs to take a rest. The dinosaurs watch her from outside their bedroom window, waiting for her to go into a chocolate pudding induced slumber, when she finally hears one of them mentioning that their chocolate-filled-little-girl-bonbon isn’t quite ready and will taste better when she’s rested. Little miss actually takes a moment to think about it and realizes that she is not in the three bears’ house but rather in the dinosaur’s house and high-tales it out of there leaving three very disappointed dinosaurs.

This book was uproariously funny. I loved the tongue in cheek aspect and the simple illustrations. There was a lot of subtle humor through both words and visual gags. I think I laughed even more because my daughter really enjoyed the book but didn’t realize that the dinosaurs were trying to fill her with chocolate so that they could eat her. Part of that was because she had never heard the term bonbon, but regardless, she just thought the story was fun. I have a feeling that if I returned to this book in a few months with her, she would respond differently.

This was a wonderfully funny fractured fairy tale that kept mom and kid smiling throughout.