Description:
When three hipster bears leave their '50s style split-level house to go bopping off into the woods while their piping-hot homemade chili cools off, they never expect a golden-tressed visitor to come calling. But come she does, and soon is wreaking unintentional havoc on the Bear family's stylishly decorated home. First she sits on Papa Bear's 1902 Scottish "Ladderback" chair, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. But it's too hard. So she tries Mama Bear's Danish "Egg" chair, circa 1957, but alas! It's too soft. Finally Goldilocks settles on Baby Bear's 1946 "LCW" chair, by Charles and Ray Eames, and it's just right--until it smashes into smithereens beneath her. All this activity has made our little trespasser hungry, so she checks out the chili in its Hungarian pottery by Eva Zeisel with spoons by Italian artisan Gio Ponti. Too hot, too cold, just right. And so on, up to the bedrooms, where the returning Bear family finds her, snoozing away in Baby Bear's bed. This hilarious and highly stylized version of the classic tale is rendered "moderne" by Steven Guarnaccia's comic, skilled illustrations of a host of international designers' furnishings. Young readers do not need to be modern art buffs to appreciate the familiar story with its modish depictions of the beatnik Bear family. But anyone with a soupçon of design knowledge will also delight in the allusions, and appreciate the illustrated endsheets that list the names and creators of each decorative object. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter
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