9. Me and You

We've all heard the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" right? The mischievous little girl who messes with the bear's things...the angry bears who chase her out. Well, as happens to all beloved fairy tales, this one has been re-worked and fractured over the years. My newest experience with a spin on the Goldilocks tale is Anthony Browne's Me and You (2009). You know it is going to be different from the get go...Browne dedicates this book "for all the underdogs". But who is the underdog in this tale? You must read to find out...


The book is practically wordless-- pages and pages go by where the only thing you have to rely on are Browne's incredibly detailed and heartfelt illustrations. The words that do appear are essentially the same as in any Goldilocks story (the porridge, the chairs, the beds), except this time we hear everything from Baby Bear's perspective. Which brings me to the unique aspect of this retelling. Brown chooses to write and illustrate a split narrative, with Goldilocks' experience on the verso and Baby Bear (with his mom and dad) on the recto. The little girl's illustrations are always cast in a dark, gray, dull palette, showing us her gritty reality and filling us with sympathy for her life. She lives in a bleak urban setting. Her story is told in vignettes (3-6 on each page), which help the reader move quickly through her life, understanding that she is not the same girl we are used to reading about. Though she is with her mother, she is often turned away and seems to be longing for something. Then, while following a balloon, she gets lost. And that's how she ends up at the bear's house.

Browne's attention to realistic detail shows you the graffiti on the walls, the anguish on her face when she is separated from her mother, the comfort she feels in the Bear's house. We are drawn to Goldilocks' story because Browne creates her with such drama and sympathy. The only color that appears in her life (besides her own golden locks) is when she is drawn into the warm yellow of the bear's house. There she is no longer downcast and experiences a world different from her own. Thus, we don't blame Goldilocks for going into their house...she is not the brat we are used to reading about.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the book, the three bears are colorful (pastel tones), happy, and a family unit. We immediately know that the bears are much better off economically-- they live in a huge house and have plenty of food and furniture. In fact, they are so wrapped up in their world that the parents often have their noses in the air while Baby Bear ' messes around. They are carefree and ignorant of the bleak reality that Goldilocks faces not so far away. (In fact, on the wraparound cover you can see the happy bears in front with a dark Goldilocks, lost and forgotten in the background). 

Browne's style and choice of media even further the distinction between the stories-- the subtle, subdued tones of Goldilocks almost appear photographic, while the bears seem to be shaded with colored pencils and appear slightly cartoonlike (with some realism as well).

Browne takes a traditional fairy tale and fills it with an emotion I have never felt in other versions. It is a social commentary on the haves and have-nots, on the social classes that can live right next to each other, but not even be aware of each other's existence. It can teach children to think about how you treat others and try to understand where people come from (before immediately judging them). It is in this version that we get a motive for Goldilock's actions-- perhaps she wasn't so bad after all. Even Baby Bear himself worries about her in the end (after she runs away).

In the classroom, you could use this book in a text set about fractured fairy tales or even in a unit on social justice. I found myself affected by its message and want to add it to my collection.