Goldilocks and the Three Rhinos: A South African Retelling

A girl with a spiky ponytail (no golden locks in sight) finds her way to a forest home inhabited by three rhinos. These details, and some modern guilt—“I’d better wait for someone to come home. Then I can tell them how hungry I was,” the girl says—are the only textual tweaks to a straightforward retelling of the “Goldilocks” tale. Fortunately, the expressive faces of the rhinos and the heedless child, rendered with energy and vibrant color, enliven the story (as the three head home, thought bubbles show slippers, sunshine, and porridge on their minds). As in the traditional tale, conventional gender roles are personified in a big, loud father and a medium-voiced mother. Ample white space and subtle font-size adjustments, which amplify big and small, play nicely with Rankin’s illustrations. Ages 3–8. [em](Apr.) [/em]