Local designer gets Goldilocks tale just right
Local designer creates a fresh and hilarious take on the Goldilocks tale that's just right
An absolutely alluring picture book has emerged from a creative hub on Whyte Avenue, taking a familiar fairy tale and messing up its hair.
The Three Bears and Goldilocks is Edmonton designer and now author Bee Waeland's first book — wordless and beautiful — a demonstration of absolute mastery of pictorial cartoon storytelling. To boot, its surprise ending is laughout-loud hilarious, though you'll cop few plot spoilers here.
“I've always wanted to do a kids book,” explains Waeland, 46. “When my brother and his wife announced last Christmas they were having a baby I thought, `I better get on this and make one.'
“I thought when he was very little he'd just be interested in shapes and really bright colour, so that it wasn't too complicated.
“He's adorable,” she adds with no small dose of auntie love. “He has a short attention span, but he really engaged with it.”
Waeland even named-dropped her nephew on the book's publication info page: “All ages, Jacks and bears will enjoy this book.”
One hundred per cent. Co-owner of Vivid Print at 10342 82 Ave., Waeland was born in the U.K.
“I'm very British,” she says with a laugh. “My dad used to read to me, and he used to change the story, and it just delighted me when I was a kid. He read Cinderella to me I don't know how many times, and he would change the word `slipper' to ` bucket.' He knew I would just scream with laughter.”
Like Jack, her dad has also seen the book.
“He definitely knows I have a sense of humour.”
As you flip through the hardcover's pages, this is certainly evident.
A far off deer in the forest has a little brown circle sitting behind its bum, which soon finds Goldilocks' shoe. A broken flowerpot by the window shows how she penetrates the House of Bear.
And our little invader's savage wolfing down of Baby Bear's porridge is only outdone by the laughter-summoning freak-out of Papa Bear once he surveys the damage.
There's even a clever nod to the “Goldilocks Zone” in which Earth resides in a mobile hanging over junior's bed.
And all this information is, once again, perfectly transmitted without a single word — though children (and you) will likely be saying the familiar, rule-of-three “someone's been sleeping in my bed!” loudly along with the action.
The history of Goldilocks runs oddly enough not unlike O Canada, with its ongoing permutations, evolving with “where no one has gone before” corrections over time.
England's Robert Southey was the first to publish the story in 1837 — the first year of Queen Victoria's long reign — as The Story of the Three Bears, in which a wretched old woman invades the home of three bear “bachelors” (say that out loud). She is chased away in the end, and scolded by the prim narrator for her ill manners.
“It has a moral to it,” Waeland says of the story, though she thinks it has changed over the years, perhaps over-favouring Goldilocks. “Sometimes she gets eaten, sometimes she jumps out a window from the second floor.”
We laugh together at the fact the little girl is little more than a home invader, smashing anything she pleases.
“That's what she did, though! When I heard that story when I was a kid I thought, she's broken into that house!”
Her ending? Well, as I said: no spoilers. But it's worth the price of admission. Going back to Waeland's father and his “bucket” Cinderella slipper, “I like that idea of putting a twist on things, telling it in your own way.”
Waeland graduated from Grant Macewan, working in design studios in Edmonton and Vancouver, opening Vivid Print with Mark Wilson in 2007. Her sturdy prints and graphics often hang in the store's window, including Parks Alberta animals and, this summer, a sweet tribute to the provincial voice of calm and patience, Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
“I try and do simple, colourful graphics that are bold. We love doing local, that's kind of our thing.”
The book was printed in Montreal. “We were glad there was somewhere in Canada to do it.”
The first run is of 100 copies — $29.95 apiece — which they've been pushing through social media. Like Metro Cinema and Otto, just two examples, Vivid Print has voluntarily closed its doors during the pandemic, but you can order though vividprint.ca. A second run is on its way January.
But this bear tale might just be the first in a series.
“I'd like to try Hansel & Gretel because I'd love to do all that candy,” she says with a laugh. “They push the witch in the fire at the end, so I'll have to figure that out for children.”
Mind you, the store needs to get through a very busy December first, before she can work on a new book and get it just right.
But when it's time, Waeland will be good to go. She just notes, “You'll have to pick me up off the floor.”
My dad used to read to me, and he used to change the story, and it just delighted me ... He knew I would just scream with laughter.