The ominous figure of Goldilocks appears on the page again with an extreme close up of her mouth devouring baby bear’s porridge villainously, allowing for readers’ gasps and laughs in equal measure. Waeland lays out the clues of Goldilocks’ trespass amusingly, showing her muddy footprints throughout the house and the broken leg of baby bear’s chair leg left in her wake. With one humorously simple illustration after another, Waeland depicts the criminal journey of Goldilocks, showing the broken planter from which Goldilocks retrieves the spare key before unceremoniously breaking into the bear family’s home while they are away. Goldilocks, in contrast, is menacingly introduced to the reader standing on her own, shoveling food into her mouth greedily, boots dripping with mud. Waeland delightfully illustrates said bear family, showing their everyday routines of porridge-eating, playing with toys and adventuring outdoors. Waeland cleverly flips the title around to reveal that Goldilocks is actually the odd one out, someone intruding on an otherwise good and peaceful family of bears. In the traditional tale, Goldilocks’ name is foregrounded as presumably the hero or, at least, the protagonist. In Bee Waeland’s first picture book, she ambitiously adapts the classic story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” entirely without the use of text.

Goldilocks three bears names