School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-The three bears are just the appetizer in this charmingly illustrated pop-up banquet. Goldilocks encounters a family of aliens, talking furniture, and "a grumpy-looking 'grandma' in a bed, six or seven other beds, and somebody or something banging away like billy-o at the back door." By altering individual elements, Ahlberg reinforces the central idea. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Retellings of Goldilocks are many, and this father-daughter team increases the tally by seven in this well-designed and very funny offering. Allan Ahlberg opens with a concise traditional version of the story before diving into increasingly chaotic alternate takes: in "Goldilocks and the 33 Bears," the girl's getaway is thwarted when she runs into dawdling teenage bears outside; an alien encounter, "Goldilocks and the Bliim," has a vocabulary all its own ("Who's been dodderling my spootz?"); and a parody of a children's theater production features audience interaction and a great many dance numbers. Interactive elements are cleverly integrated, and Jessica Ahlberg's prim watercolor cartoons and an overall elegant layout contrast delightfully with the stories' many comedic moments. Ages 5-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Like Mo Willems's Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (rev. 9/12), this book, with its six tongue-in-cheek variants, is sure to provoke chortles. The Ahlbergs (father and daughter) progress from simple changes in the canonical tale's details and repartee to a version with thirty-three bears (some amusingly "teenage"); in lieu of bears, "Goldilocks and the Bliim" features cute green spacemen with their own names for things; in the next variant, the furniture (chair, bed, porridge bowl, etc.) brings its own point of view to the events; a play (actually a small book glued to a village scene), itself another variation, is enjoyed by villagers and nursery-tale characters alike. The sequence builds to a climax when many of this crew crowd into a cottage to fend off the wolf they imagine huffing outside the door. Not so: he's in bed inside, posing as Grandma. Complicated, or what? But the verbal wit, the delicately limned pen and watercolor art with its plenitude of intriguing detail, and clever touches of paper engineering add up to a barrel of fun. Re-reading will ensue. joanna rudge long (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A familiar old tale is taken for a terrific spin with more bears, three pigs, assorted woodland animals, space aliens, additional young cast members (including one in a red hood) and lots and lots of sticky buns. Being a "cheeky girl," Goldilocks thinks nothing of following up her destructive visit to the Three Bears' cottage by messing around in the seemingly similar "cottage"--which expands to a tall apartment house with the pull of a tab--of the 33 Bears. Then, in 2076, inviting herself into the trood (spaceship) of the Three Bliim for a taste of spootz ("porridge, sort of") and a nap in the smallest woodootog (bed). In further outings, Goldilocks encounters dishes and other furnishings with minds of their own, plays lead in a theatrical romp presented in an inset booklet containing a script and a pop-up stage, and at last finds a number of unexpected houseguests sleeping in her bed. The very small, very finely drawn figures and households insist on (and reward) close looks, and they are enhanced by an array of surprises revealed beneath flaps or through die-cut windows. The frequently distributed buns aren't all that's delicious in this exhilarating suite of variations on a classic. (Pop-up/fractured fairy tale. 5-9)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
