If you were to wave something completely different in front of my eyes - say, sushi - it would look like a brilliant idea by comparison. Sure it's tasty, but after a few days those leftovers don't seem so appealing. It's like eating too much turkey, stuffing, and pie on Thanksgiving. One thing I've noticed from being on award committees is that spending the year looking at SO MANY books can distort my perspective. We've seen him create this kind of spot-on humor delivered by cartoon-drawn creatures many times before. The moral for Goldilocks is 'If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.' For the dinosaurs, it's 'Lock the back door!' And did I mention the endpapers? Genius! Willems finds the right combination of text and art silliness and makes it all look easy. Of course, all ends well (assuming you were rooting for Goldilocks and not the dinosaurs) and Willems turns this retelling into a fable. It seems that pudding-filled little girls are the bon bon of choice for this species. The premise is that three dinosaurs (Papa, Mama, and a smaller one who is visiting from Norway) set a trap for Goldilocks, hoping to lure her to their house with chocolate pudding and then eat her when she falls asleep in one of their beds. Happily, just about all the gags in this book are targeted straight across at a folk-tale–knowledgeable elementary school audience. I'm okay with winks up to a point, but I don't like it when too many are aimed up over the heads of the kids. Like lots of fractured folktales, this is full of winks. Since this one is by Mo Willems, it had me at 'Once upon a time.' As far as I'm concerned, there can never be too many twisted folktale retellings.

Goldilocks three dinosaurs