An Asbo for Goldilocks Please (Fairy Tales for Little Children)

Member Name: noodlesandwich

Product:	Fairy Tales for Little Children
Date:	10/06/09 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well written, well illustrated fairy stories

Disadvantages: pages can be torn

This is a collection of five fairy stories updated and retold for the amusement of young children. They are; Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Twelve Dancing Princesses and The Frog Prince. Although I was grateful for this gift for my daughter, I wasn't quite sure about the inclusion of two stories which end with a prince and princess getting married, as I do try and steer her away from too much girly brainwashing. I needn't have worried though, (or maybe I should?), as she seems far more interested in adopting the naughty Goldilocks as her role model. And in this version, Goldilocks needs an Asbo slapped on her. Although the title says 'for Little Children', given the stories I can only really see this being bought for girls.

It's a large, (25 by 25cm), book with a turquoise cover which shows Little Red Riding Hood being followed by the, (not very scary looking), Big Bad Wolf, who is pulling tongues behind her back. It's attractively presented with a ribbon attachment bookmark. It's a paper book with a hardcover, although the paper is a bit tougher than normal. I have had to sellotape only one of the pages so far, which isn't bad going considering how often my daughter grabs this one off the shelf.

There are three different illustrators for the five stories, with Mike Gordon illustrating for Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Frog Prince; Anna Luraschi for The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Georgien Overwater for The Three Little Pigs. The styles are noticeably different, although all are traditional cartoonish images and all are well done. I particularly like Luraschi's style, which is more detailed and intricate than the others. I like her dresses for the princesses.....I think I may have a latent dress designer within.

The first story to be retold is Little Red Riding Hood. In this version, Red Riding Hood is the bearer of a bowl of brussels sprout soup for Grandma. A certain Big Bad Wolf, who thinks this is yuck! ends up eating it himself due to a sore stomach after an impromptu operation for Grandma and granddaughter removal.

The Three Little Pigs follows and I was glad to see the subtle inclusion of a very clever sister pig, instead of the traditional three male piggies. Of course it would be the girl who had enough common sense to build a brick house and then later have the others come round for some Big Bad Wolf casserole.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears comes next, and as mentioned Goldilocks is the star of the show in our house, (my daughter copied her with the exclamation; "ow! too hard", recently, when testing out pushchairs in Asda). I like the pictures the bears have on the walls in their cottage, with honey bees featuring prominently, but I'm not quite sure the scissor wielding, bucket-of-water pouring, tag painting vandal who is Goldilocks is a good role model for pre-schoolers!

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is a story that had almost ecaped my memory, but having had it refreshed with this book, I remember particularly liking the part of the story involving the princesses stealing away in beautiful boats being followed by someone in a magic cloak. Oddly, my daughter seems more fond of the grumpy old king and has even expressed a desire that her Daddy should grow a beard 'like the King'!

The final story involves a rather odious little girl who is cruel to frogs, but ends up, of course marrying one - after it turns into a prince.

Susanna Davidson, has retold the stories with an emphasis on laughs, for children and also for the adults reading with them. Princess Poppy of The Frog Prince, for example, would rather eat her toenails than marry slimy Prince Humperdink, and the baseball cap wearing pigs are like overgrown teenagers their mother can't wait to get rid of, but my favourite lines have to be the following; "Poor Jasper," said the youngest princess. I don't want him to die." "Too late," said her sisters, putting on their glittering gowns. Throw away callousness does it for me.

I have either bought or been given quite a few Usborne books since the birth of my daughter and I have to say they have all been of good quality and well liked. This one is no exception and although the price tag may seem a little steep for a children's book, as long as it's well looked after it should bring enjoyment to it's reader(s) for quite a while. The cover price is £12.99 although it's currently available for £9.99 on Amazon. Another look on Amazon tells me these same stories are all available seperately, but if you did buy them this way it would end up costing a fair bit more. This is a popular book with my little one and although she clearly has a favourite, she does take turns with different stories; one day she will have The Frog Prince three times and then the next week it will be The Three Little Pigs that are in favour, so I do think for what is basically five books in one, it's worth the money.

Hardcover: 136 pages
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd (25 Jul 2008)
Product Dimensions: 25.2 x 25.2 x 2.6 cm

Summary: comical re-telling of traditional tales