Goldilocks for Dinner

April 15, 2019
Mind your manners? Don't mind if they do! Having lost the ickiness contest in Who's the Grossest of Them All? (2016), buddies Troll and Goblin have now abandoned entirely any desire to be disgusting themselves. Instead, they've turned their attention toward children, those "wretched" little beasts that they consider uniformly rude. Concocting a plan, the two decide to find the rudest child and have it for dinner. Turns out, this is more difficult than planned. Mistress Mary is just contrary, and Simple Simon merely gross. However, when the two hear about Goldilocks, they know they've found the kid they want for dinner. The twist at the end is that old chestnut in which the two seeming baddies want to have Goldilocks over for dinner so they can teach her good table manners (never mind that of all her breaches of etiquette, Goldilocks' behavior during mealtime is hardly her greatest sin). The cartoony illustrations are rendered in ink with digital colors, and the incorporation of Sunday-funnies-style Ben Day dots into them is certainly striking. Caregivers misled by the subtitle may expect more manners tutelage than the book delivers. As a story of baddies thwarted, but not for the reasons you'd expect, it's passable. As a manners book, don't expect the Emily Post seal of approval. All humans in the story are pictured as white. Mannered, yes. Containing advice on manners? Not so much. (Picture book. 3-6)

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July 12, 2019

K-Gr 2-A simple but inadvertently "terrifying" misunderstanding is the premise for this tale of Goblin and Troll's good intentions. The two friends enjoy a cup of tea and discuss how rude children are. The purple and green creatures decide then and there to "find the rudest child of all and have it for dinner." On their way to town, they compliment Mary from "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" on her beautiful garden only to be met with a terse, not very polite, but not surprising response. Colorful cartoon illustrations fill the pages, and observant children will find many nursery rhyme characters in the backgrounds, including the three little pigs, Little Bo Peep and her sheep, Jack and Jill from hill fame, Little Jack Horner, and others. The disgruntled three bears explain their predicament to Goblin and Troll: there's a rude child in their house creating chaos. The two friends take it from there. VERDICT Youngsters will have fun pointing out the various nursery rhyme characters and will be anxious to learn of Goldilocks's fate.-Maryann H. Owen, Oak Creek Public Library WI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 2, 2019
Montanari and Parker reprise the characters from Who’s the Grossest of Them All? and wrap up with another twist ending. Commiserating over the “wretched” young human generation’s lack of manners, Goblin suggests to Troll that they “find the rudest child of all and have it for dinner!” Concealing their plan, they engage fairy tale favorites in conversation and coax a snotty Goldilocks to Goblin’s cottage, where it’s revealed—too late for Goldilocks, who flees when she thinks she hears that she’s on the menu—that the intention of having her dine with them was to teach her table manners. They’re “the key to proper behavior,” Goblin says as Troll removes one of the fancy place settings. The lighthearted premise is somewhat undone by the friends’ intent to lure unsuspecting children home, but Parker’s cartoons have a genial oversize feel, with flat colors and halftone textures that feel like vintage Sunday comics. Ages 4–8.