The Three Bears' Christmas Surprise

Locations
Call Number: Kids Book / Holidays / Christmas / Duval, Kathy
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Holidays / Christmas / Duval, Kathy	4-week checkout	On Shelf

After taking a walk on Christmas Eve while their freshly baked gingerbread cools, Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear arrive home to encounter another "trespasser," who does not have golden hair but wears a red suit and leaves presents. Someone has eaten the three bears' gingerbread cookies. Someone has sat in their chairs and slept in their beds too! The intruder has left clothing all over the house-a woolly mitten, a black boot, and a red coat. Best of all, he's also left presents under the tree! Children will enjoy picking out the hidden clues left by Santa throughout the house and catching him making a getaway in his sleigh in just his long johns!

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Too Divergent from the Fairy Tale to Work as a Riff on It submitted by Meginator on August 1, 2022, 4:00pm This picture book is built around a slight remix of the traditional three bears fairytale, with mixed results. The idea of Santa as the bears’ secret visitor is a cute nod to the holiday season and the story itself moves at a nice pace, but the altered plot structure bears little resemblance to the more familiar version(s) until the very end and thus isn’t particularly effective as a riff on the source material. I think this would have been stronger as an explicitly standalone story, with more of an emphasis on various clues observed on the bear family’s late-night walk (particularly in the illustrations, which miss an obvious opportunity in this regard) and fewer questions about why Santa just up and left all of his outerwear in a random home (a development that is, oddly, confirmed by the pictures!). The book is fine, but doesn’t quite follow through on its best ideas.