Reviews

In Dealey's debut, Goldilocks is a mid-century-modern girl, with her beige-blonde hair in pinch-tight braids and red barrettes. She mopes in bed or in her living-room Egg chair, sipping a cold drink and glumly surveying the pink "polka dots" on her rosy skin. Nursery characters like Little Red regret that Goldilocks can't "come to Gram's" with her, while others tell her not to scratch the spots: "`Leave them be,' agreed Bo Peep,/ Who happened by in search of sheep./ `That's sound advice for chicken pox./ It doesn't work for wayward flocks.' " Dealey's stilted rhymes hark back to the early years of the baby boom and "Dick and Jane" readers; Goldie endures the taunts of an unsympathetic little brother, while Father (dressed in a smoking jacket or dude-ranch shirt) maintains discipline. Wakiyama (Too Big!) likewise mimics 1950s picture books in her oversaturated color illustrations, printed on cream-yellow, faux-aged pages. Her work suggests the era of color separations, with fragile paper and opaque orange and turquoise inks. This fond look at old-fashioned fairy tales and family-sitcom dynamics injects wry touches (when Little Red comes by, a wolf peers in the window) that let readers in on the joke. Ages 3-6. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

PreS-Gr 1-Goldie Locks not only has lots of pink spots, but she also has a thoroughly pesky brother and many visitors, including Henny Penny, Bo Peep, and Jack Be Nimble. While her mouse doctor prescribes cool treats, cool baths, and patience, Little Brother suggests connecting the "dots," calls her a monster and an alien, and boldly boasts of his own immunity, causing poor Goldie to wail, "-how am I supposed to rest/when my brother's such a pest?" However, the obstreperous sibling suffers a fitting (if predictable) fate-some polka dots of his own. The oil illustrations have a decidedly retro feel with furniture, fashions, and fabric patterns of the 1950s. Observant viewers will have fun with the visual references to fairy-tale events. With four to eight lines of verse per page, the rhyming text sometimes strains-"pox" is variously paired with "spots," "squawked," "doc," etc. However, the pacing is lively and both mother and doctor offer sympathy and recommend tried-and-true remedies for this common childhood ailment. This combination of fairy-tale fantasy and domestic realism just might win a smile from young patients and from those adults who can appreciate the nostalgia.-Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

"This combination of fairy-tale fantasy and domestic realism just might win a smile from young patients and from those adults who can appreciate the nostalgia."

--"School Library Journal"