Katherine Coville

This novel is a retelling of “Goldlilocks and the Three Bears;” it’s nothing like you think it will be!

Ms. Brown has been hired as a governess to Teddy Vaughn. Yes, they are bears who are enchanted, which means that they talk and live lives much like human. Teddy is a sweet cub and Ms. Brown loves teaching him, but her necklace gets stolen. Come to find out, there’s a wild human girl living in the house that they’ve named Goldlilocks. She likes to take things, but Ms. Brown still show more can’t find her necklace. She finds Goldilocks in need of love and wants to help her.

All sounds well, but there are problems brewing. There’s an association that wants to keep the enchanted animals under curfew and take some of their rights away. Mr. Vaughn is part of the underground enchanted animals meeting, which is against the law. Ms. Brown tries to help keep their cover by playing the organ while they “practice” for “church choir.” There’s also some teens running around who are threatening and stealing from everyone, and they want Goldilocks. They’ll do anything, including violence, to get her. The association will do anything to stop Mr. Vaughn from his activities, which includes helping these violent kids. In the midst of this turmoil, Ms. Brown falls in love with Mr. Bentley, but he is betrothed to another woman.

It’s a somewhat long but cute book. I didn’t like it at the beginning because I don’t like talking animals. I ended up being pulled into the story and wanting the Vaughn’s to win against the humans and find love for Ms. Brown. There’s a small comment being made about people who criticize people who don’t feel like people of different races can adopt children of other races. It’s cute. show less

Delightful gothic adventure, worthy of Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, with the notable distinction that the characters are re-imagined out of European fairy tales and nursery rhymes. It's told in first-person by Ursula, a she-bear working as governess to the wealthy Vaughns, a family of bears who live in the titular cottage. The story of the family and the secret they are protecting is set against a backdrop of prejudice by humans against Enchanted animals like themselves. Additional show more themes, including freedom of the press, make for an exciting tale. show less

Ivy and her grandmother live in a cottage at the edge of the village of Broomsweep. Unlike the rest of the village, their cottage is untidy, their porch step is not swept twice a day (or sometimes at all!), and their garden is a wilderness. But Ivy and her grandmother are happy there, helping animals (and sometimes people), making potions from the weeds and herbs in the garden, and sometimes even seeing a magical animal or two.

But when the new queen announces a competition for the best show more village, the other inhabitants of Broomsweep (especially the persnickety mayor's wife, Mistress Peevish) think that their village would be just perfect - if Ivy and her grandmother cleaned up their cottage, weeded the garden, and got rid of all those dirty animals. Especially the magical ones! When a crash-landing griffin and a dragon with a cold show up, exiled from their own villages, things go from bad to worse. Will the villages send Ivy and all her friends away? Or will the magical creatures manage to save the day?

Black and white pictures show a cute, round-cheeked girl, her plump grandmother, and the creatures that take refuge at their home. This is a little past a beginning chapter book, coming in at 134 pages, but it will still appeal to that demographic. It's an intermediate reading level and has a sweet and humorous tone.

The griffin (and his protective declarations about Poof, the little white dog), and the good-natured but sinus-challenged dragon are delightful characters with humor and charm. Ivy is a sweet child, although I found her grandmother's cheerful indifference to the gathering annoyance and anger of the villages to be a little alarming.

Verdict: There are other magical animal titles that I would recommend first - the Magical Animal Adoption Agency by Kallie George and Zoe and Sassafras by Asia Citro - but if you have lots of fans of this type of story it's a fun addition to the genre.

ISBN: 9780553539752; Published March 2017 by Alfred A. Knopf; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

This book is simply irresistible. The three little bears are back and better than ever. What were the bears like before Goldilocks barged into their house? What happens after? It's a delightful book written at a higher level(middle school) for a much younger audience.