You know about fractured fairy tales, but this new picture-book-format graphic goes one better and aims at bigger kids.
Goldilocks and the Seven Squat Bears
by Emile Bravo
Yen Press
ISBN: 978 0 316 08358 4
There are picture books for smaller kids – and then there are picture books that are meant for older kids, generally for reasons of content or of sophistication. In this case, it is also in graphic novel style, and the humour is definitely aimed a little older, and at kids who have some decent knowledge of fairy tales and will recognize at least most of the ones that make appearances here.
The story starts out with the seven squat bears coming home from working in the mines to find someone has been in their house eating their porridge, and is still there! She’s a giant, so off they go to get a prince to slay her… but of course, while he had slain a giant once before, he was not really a prince. He was, however, known as Goldilocks for the golden lock on his belt that read “seven at one blow.” This, in the first few pages. Can you count the different fairy tales we’ve hit already?! It goes on this way, twisting, mixing, and jumping from tale to tale, creating lots of great stuff to uncover and a terrifically funny and wild little tale.
A graphic is little without its drawings, of course, and these crack me up even without the words in some frames. There’s a slightly Tintin-esque quality about the people, and the bears are very cute, in an awkward kind of way. There are places where the simplicity is deceptive, though, because once you look more closely, you notice textures and details that really make it. The whole is really a lot of silly, goofy fun, perfect for, say, grade 2 to 5 ish.
Fun!!
this looks awesome!