The Bear Out There

There have been a fair number of fractured fairytale versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, perhaps none quite so dramatic as this one. It begins with a knock at the door of a cottage, followed immediately by a scream from the little girl narrator who speaks directly to we readers – no she doesn’t have golden hair, she’s a red-head. She sits on a large armchair and proceeds to warn of the exceedingly scary BEAR out there and goes on to explain that despite having not actually seen the creature there are m,three signs that prove its close proximity: ‘The hair on your arms stands straight up. You feel a pair of great big eyes watching the back of your head. Your feet get suuuuper itchy’. She also draws a somewhat inaccurate – despite her claim – picture of the ursine beast. After a game of cards, readers get a glimpse of an actual bear outside but not the narrator who goes to open the door when she hears sounds outside. Lo and behold there stands a very large bear, whereupon she escapes by hurling herself through the window. Having gained entry, the bear tells the story from his perspective making it absolutely clear over a cuppa who the house actually belongs to: ‘Believe it or not, break-ins happen all the time’ and showing a book entitled Goldilocks: Friend or Fiend? Then being a kindly bear, he offers the intruder a bed for the night. There’s a deliciously droll final twist showing the original narrator has become an author and is making money from her experience with ‘I Survived a Real Bear: A Memoir’. Jess Hannigan’s bold cut paper illustrations are often at odds with the words adding to the humour and subversive nature of this cracking book.