cover image Goldilocks and Just One Bear

Goldilocks and Just One Bear

Leigh Hodgkinson. Candlewick/Nosy Crow, $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6172-4

Who doesn't love a reunion show? Hodgkinson (Limelight Larry) brings together a legendary couple%E2%80%94Baby Bear and Goldilocks%E2%80%94via a clever story that offers few clues as to what the author is up to. "Once upon a time, there was this bear," who wanders out of the woods and ends up in the heart of a noisy, bustling city. Disoriented, the bear stumbles into the penthouse apartment in Snooty Towers, where he finds just the right porridge, chair, and bed before falling asleep. The family is outraged, of course, until the "mommy person" and the bear realize who the other is. Hodgkinson's angular, na%C3%AFf drawing style has just the right amount of satirical nudge for depicting Goldilocks' ascension to the 1% (she's become a stylish blonde matron married to an equally stylish and blonde man with a Mr. Monopoly mustache). Hodgkinson's dry sense of humor is on full display%E2%80%94the first chair Baby Bear tries is "too ouchy," the second "too noisy" (they are, respectively, a cactus and a cat)%E2%80%94and should earn this "Where are they now?" fairy tale many re-reads. Ages 3%E2%80%93up. (Aug.)