I Thought This Was a Bear Book

May 25, 2015
Familiar storybook characters go off-topic in an off-kilter literary mashup that originates with two books tumbling off a child’s shelf in the night. Amid billowing pink exhaust, a spacecraft barrels out of one volume and crashes on a page with the “three bears” of Goldilocks fame. “I am Prince Zilch from Planet Zero!” a green alien announces to the startled bears. Zilch needs to return to his own book in time to “save Planet Zero from giant planet-eating numbers,” yet the curious bears only muddle around in his ship. “Pardon me, small Earthling,” Zilch implores readers. “It is crucial I return by page 27!” Baby Bear breaks the fourth wall, too, urging readers to shake the book so Zilch may “crash out” of the story. Lazar (The Monstore) tells the story through dialogue, and Davies (Goodnight Already) color-codes the voice balloons by character. With its wandering cast of characters, overlapping stories, and inside jokes aimed at those well-versed in nursery rhymes and fairy tales, this “bear book” reveals itself as a book about books. Ages 4–7. Author’s agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agency: Bright Agency.

May 1, 2015
An extraterrestrial spaceship crashes into the "Goldilocks" fairy tale in this mashup metafictive picture book. Prince Zilch, from Planet Zero, is unexpectedly bumped out of his book and into Goldilocks & 3 Bears, where his presence alters the plot considerably. Determined to find his way back to his own book, he enlists the help of the bewildered bears, who were picking blueberries (being sick of porridge) when the alien landed. The familiar trappings of the "Goldilocks" story are put into service with this new plot: the three chairs are balanced one on top of the other to try to boost Prince Zilch out of the confines of the book-and Baby Bear's chair breaks. Next, the three mattresses are stacked into a makeshift trampoline, and the bears make reference to their springiness ("That's what you think," Goldilocks mutters). Davies' flattish, colorful illustrations, dotted with variously colored speech bubbles, keep the visual stimulation high, but they cannot keep the story, with its overdependence on subversive Goldilocks-fairy-tale digs, from wearing thin. And when, in a metamoment, Baby Bear enlists the help of readers, entreating them, "Can you shake the book? Go ahead, shake it! Then turn the page!" it is less of an eye-opener in this popular subgenre and more of a "been there; done that." It's capably enough executed, but there are no surprises here. (Picture book. 3-7)

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.