Lisa Campbell Ernst sets Goldilocks Returns fifty years after Goldilocks first met the three bears. Published in the year 2000, this twist on the traditional tale makes for exciting reading.

The middle aged Goldi now owns a lock shop that helps other people protect their homes from snoops like her. As she ages, she finds it unbearable to live with the guilt of breaking and entering, so she goes back to the bear’s cottage to fix what she broke all those years ago. Ernst’s humor is...

jamie

Susan Lowell wrote Dusty Locks and the Three Bears in 2001. This version of the tale is set in the west with grizzly bears and a desperado named Dusty Locks (named after her habit of not bathing regularly.) Susan’s fresh retelling and witty comments such as her description of the great big grizzly being “…nine feet tall and cross as two sticks” (pg. 1).

Lowell’s bears love beans, not porridge, but follow the traditional path in the woods while Dusty is rummaging around their house,...

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Goldie and the Three Bears was written and illustrated by Diane Stanley in 2003. In this version of the story, Goldie is a girl who “knew exactly what she liked- and what she didn’t” (pg 1-2). It is this fussiness that makes it difficult to find a friend she could love with her whole heart.

As she gets off the bus at the wrong stop one day, Goldie finds someone who eats, reads and sleeps exactly like she does. Luckily, mama bear understands about picky children and forgives Goldie...

jamie

The team of Caralyn and Mark Buehner created Goldilocks and the Three Bears in 2007. Caralyn follows the basic theme of the tale, but gives Goldilocks a new hobby, jump roping. Goldilocks chants her way through the story and on page 7 sings,

Big chair, middle chair, little chair too,
Somebody’s here to bounce on you!

She hops around the cottage chanting various things relating to porridge, chairs, and beds. The bears think she is an alien because of...

jamie

If you want to let your child experiment with shaving cream, but are afraid of the mess it can make, now is the time to go outside! Kate and two of her friends were having fun playing in her wading pool. I saw them pouring buckets full of water onto the plastic picnic table and got an idea. If I sat them down and squirted some shaving cream in front of them, they could use it like finger paint!

They loved it! Kate and her 3 year old friend Michael went right at it, swirling the cream...

jamie