book review of goldilocks and the three bears

A Summary and Analysis of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

A blonde-haired juvenile delinquent breaks into an ursine family home and proceeds to indulge her penchant for fussy eating and fidgetiness around furniture. This is, in brief, a summary of what happens in the fairy tale of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’.

Such a story, if true, would be of more interest to the police and the psychiatrists than the literary critic; but instead, this famous fairy story is one of the best-loved pieces of children’s fiction in existence.

And yet, pretty much every detail of the above summary is a later addition to the original story, which was very different.

‘Goldilocks’, for instance, didn’t initially feature in the fairy tale at all when it was first published in 1837. Instead, the young girl was an old woman, with silver rather than golden hair.

If we go back to the story’s oral roots, before it was published, the female antagonist may not have been a person at all (it’s been suggested that she was a ‘vixen’ – i.e. a literal female fox – but that the author of the published version misinterpreted ‘vixen’ to refer to a cunning old woman, rather than a cunning old fox). And in that first published version, the bears weren’t a family, but three bachelor bears. The porridge and the furniture were already there, though.

The author of that original version of the Goldilocks fairy tale to be published was Robert Southey, who was UK Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death in 1843. Southey’s version of the tale, called ‘The Story of the Three Bears’, marked its debut in print, when it appeared in Southey’s book The Doctor . A few years later, another writer, George Nicol, took up the story and turned it into a children’s rhyme. It almost immediately became popular, and has remained so since.

Before we delve any deeper into the story’s curious origins, it might be worth providing a slightly fuller summary of the story as it is now known to readers. Goldilocks, a young golden-haired girl, is out walking in the forest when she comes upon a house. She knocks at the door but nobody answers. But instead of minding her own business and walking off, she decides to open the door and walk in. This is the first sign that Goldilocks is trouble. Is she incredibly nosy, or does she simply have no concept of personal property?

Anyway, on with the summary. In the kitchen, on the table, there are three bowls of porridge. As she’s hungry – all that poking about in other people’s homes is hard work – she tries the porridge in one of the bowls. It’s too hot, so she moves on and tries the next bowl. The porridge is too cold. So she then tries the third bowl, and this porridge is just the right temperature. So she polishes off the whole bowl.

(This aspect of the tale – this state of something being ‘just right’ – has inspired scientists to name the area in a star system in which planets are neither too hot nor too cold the ‘ Goldilocks zone ’. We, for instance, are in the Goldilocks zone of our own solar system: Venus or Mars either side of us would be too hot or too cold respectively to support complex life.)

Having eaten the bowl of porridge, Goldilocks walks through to the living room, where there are three chairs. She tries sitting in each of them. The first is too big, as is the second, but the third is just the right size. However, it’s a small chair and Goldilocks manages to break it by sitting in it. So we can add destruction of property to the list of growing charges.

Rather than fleeing the house before she can do any more damage, Goldilocks ventures upstairs into the bedroom, where there are three beds. She tries lying on the first, but it’s too hard. The second, by contrast, is too soft. But the third is just right. So she promptly falls asleep in it.

As she’s sleeping there in the bed, the three bears – Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear – come home. The mum and dad moan about someone having eaten their porridge, and their young offspring points out that his porridge hasn’t just been tasted, but whoever tasted it has eaten the whole lot.

They then find their chairs – the parents can tell that someone’s been sitting in their chairs, but it’s all too obvious from the broken chair that someone’s had a go in Baby Bear’s. Then they go up to the bedroom, where Mama and Papa Bear spot that someone’s been in their beds. And Baby Bear sees the same – but the guilty trespasser is still in his bed, fast asleep!

When Baby Bear shouts out in surprise, Goldilocks wakes up in a fright and runs downstairs and out of the house, and never returns to the bears’ house. And that, in summary, is the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.

She didn’t become ‘Goldilocks’ immediately. Even after she had morphed from an old woman into a young girl, her name – and her hair colour – showed all the signs of fidgetiness evinced by the character herself in the story. In one version, she was Silver-Locks. In another, Golden-Hair, and yet another, Little Golden-Hair. In George MacDonald’s ‘The Golden Key’ (1867), she appears as Silverhair.

Amazingly, given the vintage of the fairy tale, it wasn’t until 1904 that she became Goldilocks, when an English writer named Flora Annie Steel took the name from older (and very different) fairy tales and applied it to the youthful intruder in the Three Bears tale.

The evolution of the three bears from Southey’s all-male trio into a family unit was not without its bumps and false starts, either. Several versions of the fairy tale published in the mid-nineteenth century altered the three bears into a family trio, yet somewhat confusingly, in the accompanying illustrations, the bears are all male and all the same size.

How should we analyse this curious little tale? It’s obviously great fun in that it contains adventure, a woodland jaunt gone wrong, and talking animals – a formula for success, if ever there was one, when it comes to children’s fairy tales. But it’s hard to say what the moral is, exactly.

At best, it’s implicit in the story: don’t go about nicking other people’s food or using their stuff, because if you take your eye off the ball they may find you out – and they might be big and fearsome and present a real danger to you. But then in most versions of the tale, Goldilocks gets a quick fright and nothing more: she undergoes no punishment or real peril, and there’s no sign at the end of the tale that she’s learned her lesson.

The fact that in each case, it’s the hapless Baby Bear whose porridge is eaten, whose chair is broken, and whose bedsheets will have to go straight in the wash, aligns the child Goldilocks with the child of the ursine family unit. She’s a child and so, we are to infer, doesn’t really understand why her actions are wrong.

(By contrast, in an earlier version before the female intruder became Goldilocks, the old woman ends up impaled on a steeple in St. Paul’s churchyard, which would make sitting down in any chair, whether yours or someone else’s, difficult for a good while after.)

The Goldilocks story might nevertheless be viewed as a classic cautionary tale about the dangers of going off and exploring unknown places. But where does curiosity give way to downright rudeness?

Goldilocks is not a particularly pleasant child. She’s been allowed to wander off on her own (where are her parents, one wonders, and what happened to parental supervision?), and then when she finds a place that is very obviously and recognisably Someone Else’s House, she decides to walk right in and help herself to whatever she can find. (Mind you, the insurance company would doubtless throw out any claim made by the bears for their broken chair: after all, they left their property unlocked.)

She’s lucky she doesn’t come a-cropper when the bears get home; indeed, in some early versions, she only narrowly escapes being devoured by them – a high price to pay for a bowl of porridge.

One could take such an analysis further, and wonder why the bears have made porridge and then caused each of the servings somehow to manage to fall to different temperature levels; or why, after they’ve gone to the trouble of making and serving up the food, they then choose that precise moment to go out. (Call of nature, perhaps? They are proverbially renowned for it…)

But then fairy tales aren’t known for their realism, or necessarily even for their moral lessons. They are fun, they introduce children to the basic patterns inherent within all stories: the sense of peril or conflict; the restoring of the equilibrium at the end of the tale; the patterning of three seen so clearly in the story (the bears, the porridge, the chairs, the beds); and the need for heroes and villains to make a compelling narrative.

What’s so strange about the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is that the true villain of the piece should not prove to be the fearsome bears, but the young golden-haired protagonist.

Discover more about classic fairy tales with our summary of the tale of Snow White , our analysis of the Sleeping Beauty tale , and our commentary on the story of Puss in Boots .

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24 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’”

• Pingback: A Summary and Analysis of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ — Interesting Literature | Kentucky Mountain Girl News by Henrietta Asher Handy

I think you have been very harsh on Goldilocks, she was only doing what any other hungry, or tired, female would have done. On the other hand those three bears were totally incompetent, went for a walk while the porridge cooled down instead of blowing on it, left the house door unlocked, owned a completely unfit for purpose chair, well two which were uncomfortable and one, and I suspect Daddy Bear had made this one, which broke into pieces as soon as it was sat on and failed to catch Goldilocks, who was easily able to outwit them and make her escape. Did you say that originally we were told they were three males?

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I have always been interested in the origin of fairy tales ever since being given some fabulous complete works as a young girl. Some scare the *&%$ out of you. :) But if Goldilocks was written by and Englishman (I love the English people and believe I am one deep in my soul)…that the reason why she just walked in the house willy nilly is that…this is what the English do. Have you ever watched their beloved crime caper show Midsomer Murders? One of the favorite things for these detectives to do is walk into peoples homes whether they are there or not. I always wondered if all English people do that. :) Now…I know why! Blessings!

Haha, good point – and a common statement here in England is ‘when I was young you could leave your doors open and you didn’t worry about crime’. Unless there’s a Goldilocks in your area, of course!

It is interesting to note that the protagonist is not the hero, even though, in most cases, the words have come to mean the same thing. Could be an interesting lesson for a kid, I suppose.

Ah, perhaps that’s it – I hadn’t thought of that, but the idea that protagonists can be morally troubling anti-heroes could, as you say, be an interesting lesson for children. Her name makes her sound all sweetness and light, but…

Perhaps the Goldilocks Zone – a happy medium – could also refer to the Buddhist Middle Way?

Lovely analysis! Always thought Goldilocks was a hideous child, spoilt, selfish – verging on sociopathic – and was always disappointed that she doesn’t receive the fitting punishment casually meted out in so many fairy tales of being eaten. Morally a baffling tale.

Glad I’m not the only one to be troubled by the ‘moral’ of this one. It’s very different from Hansel and Gretel, where the children start munching on the witch’s house because they’re starving! What’s Goldie’s excuse, one wonders?

Odd that it’s been so popular over the years really – it’s not a great example to show young children!

This just became an AP Lit lesson on how to interpret a story. I shall credit, of course. Any other stories up your sleeve? Those house-munching siblings seem prime for (psycho)analysis.

Terrific! Thanks for crediting us too – I’d love to hear how the lesson goes. I had a go at tackling Hansel and Gretel (whom I found much more sympathetic characters) here: https://interestingliterature.com/2017/05/25/a-summary-and-analysis-of-hansel-and-gretel/

I’m putting together my fall AP lessons of introducing analysis: Fairy Tales and Lit Critique. I have Red Riding Hood, now Goldilocks, and I’ll take a look at H&G. Thanks!

Sounds like a fun course, especially as analysing these fairy tales is a great way to learn about plot, character, and narrative and the stories themselves are endlessly surprising in their various versions. Red Riding Hood is on the horizon to do – if you have any others to propose, I’ll see if I can put something together on them!

Rapunzel and Cinderella, definitely. Pinnochio for the guys. Thanks!

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Like most of the English fairy tales, it’s actually not very old when you compare it with the tales from continental Europe and China. I would almost view this story from a cultural perspective, rather than a psychological one as has been done so well with the brothers Grimm tales.

Also interesting as bears had long been extinct in England so were almost mythical beasts. Southey as a child saw one at Bristol fair shaven in a suit claimed to be an ethiopian savage & a shaven monkey presented as a fairy.

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Book Review- Goldilocks and the Three Bears

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Goldilocks and the Three Bears Analysis

Analysis   Joseph Jacobs

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of the most well-known and famous fairy tales in English literature. This is a closer analysis of the story which describes how Goldilocks broke into the bears' home and ate their porridge.

Further study Goldilocks Book Goldilocks Characters Goldilocks Summary Joseph Jacobs Biography

Goldilocks and the Three Bears , also known as The Story of the Three Bears is a British fairy tale that originated in the 19th-century and has many versions, but the most noteworthy versions are only three versions that we can see adjusted in today's literary culture.

The original version of the story about the three bears includes an ugly, old woman breaking into the home of the three bears while they are on a walk waiting for their porridge to cool off. The old woman decides to sit in their chairs, eat their porridge, and sleep in one of their beds. When the three bears come home and find her in the little bear's bed, she wakes up, hops through the window and they never see her again. The second version of the story replaces the ugly, old woman with a mischievous, but cute, little girl with blonde hair Goldilocks, and the third version, also the most famous one as it was adjusted for youngest children, replaced the original story of the three male bears with Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear.

What was, in the beginning, a scary fairy tale now became a cute family story with no danger. The story developed diverse variations and was even used as an adaptation to many media such as film, opera, and many others, so Goldilocks and the Three Bears became one of the most well-known fairy tales in the English language.

The folk tale was first recorded in the narrative by the English writer Robert Southey who publicized the fairy tale anonymously in 1837 in his book The Doctor under the name The Tale of the Three Bears . In the same year, the editor George Nicol versified the fairy tale thinking that the anonymous writer who published this story was a mastermind. Southey was happy with Nicol's efforts to share the story more thus making the story more popular, but, in the end, he was concerned that the children might ignore his book The Doctor and his story and replace it with Nicol's making him more popular and famous. Nicole's story was illustrated with pictures by B. Hart and republished in 1848. In this version, he gave credits to Southey by mentioning him as the original author of the Goldilocks story.

But, not many people know that the fairy tale of the three bears existed even before Southey published it, so he's not his original creator. In 1813, Southey revealed his fairy tale to his close friend Eleanor Moore, and she made a handmade small booklet for her nephew as his birthday present. Her booklet was about three bears and an ugly, old woman, with some small changes in the details. Moors' bears had milk, while Southey's bears had porridge; Moors' bears were annoyed by the woman and they forbade her to enter their house, while Southey's character had no true reason to enter the three bear's house thus breaking it in. Moors' woman ended up nailed to the Cathedral of St. Paul's tower, while Southey's character ran away when the bears found her.

Peter and Iona Opie, well-known folklorists drew a line with the fairy tale Snow White and pointed out that Goldilocks and the Three Bears has a "partial analogue" - a beautiful girl enters somebody else's house, eats their food, and takes a nap in one of the beds. Also, there is a similar wording between the dwarves and the bears: "Someone was eating off my plate/pot!" "Someone was sitting in my chair!" , "Someone was sleeping in my bed!" . The Opies also found similarities and pointed out parallels with the ancient Norwegian story where a princess is looking for shelter in a cave-home of the three Russian princes dressed in bearskins. The princess also ate their food and, in the end, hid under one of the beds.

In 1865 in his novel Our Mutual Friend , Charles Dickens wrote a similar story, but instead of bears, he used hobgoblins as his characters. Dickens's linkage with the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears , however, implies a yet unknown source or analogue. Although some rituals and hunting ceremonies have been proposed as potential sources, the same was declined.

Eventually, in 1894, a famous collector of fairy tales Australian folklorist Joseph Jacobs discovered a folk tale about a fox as an antagonist that was attacked by bears that resemble Southey's version of the story and possibly an oral inspiration he used in his version of the story. Some sources note that in 1894 the illustrator John D. Batten documented a version of the fairy tale at least forty years old.

In Batten's version of the story, the three bears live in a big castle in the forest and the main evil character is a fox named Scrapefoot who drinks bears' milk, sits in their chairs, and rests in their beds. This fold tale is an early version of the story titled The Fox and the Bears . Southey likely heard this fairy tale and replaced the character of the fox with a pesky, malicious old woman. Some sources also note that the fairy tale, like the one with the ugly, old woman, initially comes from Southey, but nonetheless this remains a mystery.

Some sources also state that Southey heard the fairy tale about the fox and the three bears from his uncle Tyler, but this also stays a mystery as no one knows where his uncle heard the story.

Twelve years later, Joseph Cundall changed the main character (antagonist) in his Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children , and instead of writing about an old woman, he added a pretty little girl as a malicious character. He explained his motives for changing the character in a letter he wrote to his children where he mentions:

"The Tale of the Three Bears is a very old children's story, but it has never been as well told as by the great poet Southey, whose version I gave you (with permission), only I made an intruder out of an old woman. I did this because I discovered that the story is better known as Silver Hair and because there are so many other stories about old women."

After replacing the ugly, old woman with the blonde girl, she stayed as the main antagonist in many versions. In the end, his decision resulted in the fairy tale called Goldilocks - indicating that children prefer a lovely female child in stories over an old woman.

Over some time, the pretty young character had many names, such as Pantomime Harlequin, Little Silver Hair, Silver Locks, Silverhaired, Golden hair, Little Golden Hair, and eventually Goldilocks. The name Goldilocks was first recorded in the Old Kindergarten Stories and Songs (1904).

The blonde girl's story also alters in many fairy tales: in some versions, she's eaten by the bears, or she runs into the forest, in some her mother saves her, or she swears she will be a good girl not to be punished. Whatever the end, Goldilocks remained far more popular than Southey's ugly woman or the old woman nailed to a tower of St. Mary's Church.

Southey's male bears also changed over the years and are now known as a dad, mom, and teddy bear, but the date of this change is still discussed. Some sources note that the change of male bear characters happened in 1852 with Routledge's Fairy Tales of Mother Goose or Aunt Fanny's story where the illustration pictured bears as a family.

In Dickens' version from 1858, the two big bears were sister and brother and the smaller bear was their friend. This form defined the change of the trio of male bears to the family of bears - a father, mother, and child. In Routledge's work, the baby bear is named Rough Bruin, the mommy bear is named Mammy Muff and the daddy bear is named Rough Bruin. With no explanation, the illustrations that were used in the fairy tale kept the trio as male bears.

The result of several alternations in the fairy tale since its earlier publication was a change of a horrific oral story into a pleasant and family-friendly story with no hostile details.

Literary Elements

Genre: fairy tale

Setting: the time and place are unknown and is noted as "once upon a time, in a wood"

Point of view and Narrator: the story has been narrated from the bears' point of view, as well as third-person narration (when the bears are out in the wood)

Tone and Mood: the mood is changing through the story depending on the reader, but establishes a tone of warning

Style: ironical, straightforward, casual

Protagonist and Antagonist: the central protagonist are the three bears: the Great Big Bear, the Middle-sized Bear, and the Little Wee Bear, while the main antagonist is Goldilocks

Major conflict: the conflict of the story is Goldilocks unable to find a porridge, chair, or bed that fits her demands and likings.

Climax: the climax of the story is when bears return to their home and discover that somebody ate touched their porridge, sat in their chair, and is sleeping in the Little Wee Bear's bed

Ending: after being found, Goldilocks, all scared, rushes through the window

Symbols and Metaphors

The number three - the fairy tale uses the literary "number three" meaning that there are several situations repeated three times or three things. So, in this fairy tale, we have three protagonists, three pots, three chairs, and three beds. Also, there are three lines that the three bears are saying when they notice that somebody ate their porridge, sat in their chairs, or slept in their beds. This emphasizes the moment when Goldilocks is discovered.

The three lines when the bears say after their discoveries are known as "dialectical trio", where the first option is wrong, the second one is not suitable enough or is opposite from the first one and the third one is just right, if not perfect. This concept is usually seen in literature when the middle ground between two opposite options is important for storytelling. The form itself has been used in many other fields besides literature, especially in psychology where the term "Golden Hair Principle" (referring to the Goldilocks story) is popular.

Blonde Hair - it is described that Goldilocks had golden hair, referring to the blond hair. In ancient times, blonde hair symbolized youth and purity, but since Goldilocks was no good, it could symbolize her inexperience.

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Home / Find a book / Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

By Mara Alperin, and and, Kate Daubney

197 reviews

When Goldilocks sneaks into the three bears’ cottage, no one seems to be home. But the bears soon return from their walk… Will they catch that naughty little girl?My First Fairy Tales are a magical introduction to the well-loved stories that are a key part of every childhood. With fresh and fun illustrations, these simple re-tellings of classic fairy tales make a perfect bedtime read for three to six year olds.  Make sure you collect The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Jack and the Beanstalk, too!

This book is good. I like goldilocks hair but when the bears find her it is scary. She didn't have a family.

Love reading this to little sister

Easy to read and I enjoyed it

I liked it when Goldi got physical revenge on herself by running into the table and the bears got furios with her

When Goldilocks sneaks into the three bears' cottage, it seems theres no one home. But the bears soon return from there walk. my favourite character is Baby bear not only do i feel sorry for him I also would recommend this book to be a childrens book i enjoyed it so probally the ages form 4-8 years old would like this book,

I didn’t like this story.

Really enjoy my books cant wait to keep reading more

I loved all the characters because they Are fabulous and pretty!

Different to the story I know. I like that.

I liked making the different voices for mummy bear, daddy bear and baby bear

I like goldilocks. And I recommend this to my brother

Don’t go into anyone’s house without mummy and daddy

Great. I like this book

Book was nice and funny. I liked it when she was rubbing away and screaming.

i would recommend this book and my favorite person is the baby bear.

I liked the story however was a shorter book as read it to my sister

My daughter really enjoyed the pictures in this book

Those three bears family are very nice to Goldilocks ,I would like to visit them for a tea.

I love it because Goldilocks keeps doing the wrong size

I liked Goldilocks because I like her hair. I would like to recommend it because she came to the house and ate oats ! TIJA

Imaginative story

I liked Goldilocks the best I found it really good and she seemed to enjoy herself eating and sleeping in the bears house

Funny Naughty Goldilocks

I liked this story because Goldilocks messed up the 3 bears house. That was funny.

Wonderful read

My favourite character in this book is Goldilocks and it’s an amazing story. I will recommend to everyone.

Goldilocks and The Three Bears is an interesting and funny way to teach children that people come in all shapes and sizes. This can be used in PSHE sessions with pupils to teach them that everyone looks different and needs different sort of things however, it also teaches children about personal space and not taking or playing with things that aren’t theirs or which they don’t have permission to use as it can upset and worry others.

i like that she has yellow hair like me

It's a good book!

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GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS

by Emma Chichester Clark & illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2010

Three pretty maids all in a row—well, make one of them spunky, as Chichester Clark adds her rendition of the classic character to those by Sanderson ( Goldilocks , 2009) and Spirin ( Goldilocks and the Three Bears , 2009). Hers is no coy and sweet lass; she’s more naughty than nice. The illustrator’s signature style with delicately drawn, bug-eyed characters matches her jaunty retelling: “Bulls-eye!” Goldilocks cries, “Now that’s my kind of bed!” Daddy Bear later growls, “That someone is a hooligan and a thief .” As Goldilocks makes her escape, Mommy Bear says, “I’ll never know how a little girl like that could be so naughty!” The large format provides ample space for the watercolor-and–colored pencil illustrations to fill the scenes with details in china and fabric patterns and wry touches: Goldilocks reads Little Red Riding Hood while lolling in Baby Bear’s bed. The bears’ house is quite lush—no cabin in the woods here. Saucy and more playful than the other two, this version proves good things DO come in threes. Buy them all. (Picture book/folktale. 4-7)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-7636-4680-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010

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While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

More by Tish Rabe

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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Goldilocks and the Three Bears Paperback – Illustrated, February 5, 2019

• Reading age 4 - 8 years
• Print length 32 pages
• Language English
• Grade level Preschool - 2
• Lexile measure 460L
• Dimensions 9.5 x 0.2 x 9.5 inches
• Publisher NorthSouth Books
• Publication date February 5, 2019
• ISBN-10 073584335X
• ISBN-13 978-0735843356
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ NorthSouth Books; Illustrated edition (February 5, 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 32 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 073584335X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735843356
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 4 - 8 years
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 460L
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ Preschool - 2
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.5 x 0.2 x 9.5 inches
• #2,456 in Children's Bear Books (Books)
• #11,350 in Children's Folk Tales & Myths (Books)

About the authors

Valeri gorbachev.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

As long as I can remember my self I liked to draw. When I was 14 years old I had to choose my future occupation. My father wanted me to study math but I wanted to draw so I enrolled in to specialized art school. When I have graduated it I was admitted into Ukraine art academy. Even before I have graduated from the academy I have started to work as freelancer for the cartoon magazine name “Perets” (Chili Pepper). After graduation I went to work as cartoonist for “Chili Pepper” full time. In 1979 I unsuccessfully tried to leave USSR and immigrate to US. As the result of it I was fired from “Chili Pepper” and was unable to find work as artist for long time as all jobs in USSR were controlled by government.

So I spend a few years just doing oil paintings in my studio. And slow as time has passed by I realized that I did not wont to go back to do cartoons any more and what I really wanted was to write and to draw children books. I end up making over 40 published books in USSR before I finely immigrated to US after collapse of USSR in 1991. In the 20 plus years that I have been living in US I have made over 50 books.

Up on arrival to the US I have mat with Kent Brown editor in chief of Highlights magazine as well as founder of Boyds Mills Press. After the meeting he called me up and offered me the position of the stuff artist for his publication. I spend 1/5 years working for the Highlights for Children. It was very interesting and unusual period of my life not only because I was trying to adjust to life in America but also because never before in my live have I had 9 to 5 job. While I was working there I managed to establish bunch of freelance jobs. I start contributing my stories for Turtle and Cricket magazines on the regular basis “which I still do it even now”. But after 1/5 years in working for Highlight I was ready to strike on my own. By that time my children were living in NY and I felt that I should be in NY too not just because of my family but also because that’s where the heart of books publishing was.

In NY I met with Marc Cheshire Chief editor for North-South publishing house and he offered me the contracts for few of my books, which led to wonderful collaboration that lasted the next 10 years. Working for North-South I mad many books which were reprinted many times in US and all over the world. The most popular of them was “Nicky and The Big Bad Wolf” and “Little Bunnies Sleepless Night”. At the start of 2000s resection hit the market and North-South went out of business.

Right about that time at the annual Highlight for Children event I was introduce to Patty Gauch publisher and chief editor for Philomel Book. She told me that she was big fan of my works and asked me to do some books for her. Working with Patty Gauch took the next 12-15 years of my life and led to creation and publishing of many for of my books such as “Christopher Counting”, “Red, Red, Red”, “The Big Trip”, “One Rainy Day”, “What’s the Big Idea, Molly?” just to mention a few.

Over the 27 years of my life in the US I end up working for most of big children’s books publishing houses and have created over 60 books and I am sure there will be much more to come soon…

Customer reviews

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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 72% 14% 9% 4% 0% 9%
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Customers say

Customers find the illustrations great, chock-full of detail, and covering the entire page. They also describe the visual quality as cute and endearing.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the illustrations in the book great and easy to follow. They also say the pictures cover the entire page and are filled with interesting details.

"...There is tons of detail in the drawings , and the pages a truly big, leaving lots for young and old to explore...." Read more

"...The pictures cover the entire page and are filled with interesting detail...." Read more

"My son really loved this book. It had great illustrations and easy to go a long with. Would recommend this book to anyone" Read more

"Thank you for this sweet book with the darling pictures !" Read more

Customers find the book cute and endearing.

"...Pretty much the traditional Goldilocks story, with the endearing illustrations we come to enjoy about Gorbechev's books...." Read more

"This is a cute little pop-up book . It is VERY SMALL, though... about the size of large postcards!..." Read more

" Looks great ..." Read more

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