Book-A-Day Almanac

January has been designated National Folktale Month. Ever since Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith published The True Story of Three Little Pigs, over two decades ago, fractured fairy tales, or folklore, have attracted writers and illustrators. Our book of the Day, Mo Willems’s Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, falls squarely in that tradition. Children enjoy stretching conventions, even if they are not familiar with the original version of the story. I myself grew up loving the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons that played with the fairy-tale form.

I have always found “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” quite bland as a tale. Hence I was excited to see what Mo Willems, a comic genius, could do with the material. Right away on the endpapers, he has readers laughing. He writes and then crosses out a variety of titles that he will not be using for the book—fascinating ideas such as “Goldilocks and the Three Jumbo Shrimp.” The final endpage continues this concept—with “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” circled.  Of course, all these titles will give children—and adults—some interesting ideas for their own story.

Then we meet our protagonists—a father dinosaur, a mother dinosaur, and a dinosaur visiting from Norway. The inclusion of a foreign guest allows Willems to use a strange language and include Norway jokes. After making some delicious chocolate pudding, the three head someplace else, leaving the pudding to lure in an unsuspecting child. This Goldilocks does not listen to anyone—she just goes barging into houses. She stuffs herself with chocolate pudding and heads to bed. However, realizing that something is suspicious, our heroine takes action before the return of the dinosaurs. So all is well that ends well, and Willems even provides some very funny moral lessons.

With lively and humor-filled art, punchy sentences, and engaging characters, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs has everything to keep adults and children laughing. Although Mo Willems made his name in children’s books with Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, he is far from a one-trick pony. In fact, I consider him the Dr. Seuss of our age; he can fashion one endlessly funny and fascinating book after another—books for preschoolers, books for emerging readers, and now a fractured fairy tale. For one of his morals, Mo tells readers that “If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.” When children pick up a Mo Willems book, they are never in the wrong story.

Here’s a page from Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs: