Prince Zilch the alien accidentally gets knocked out of his book into a book about Goldilocks and the three little bears. How can he ever find his way home again?

This is a great book playing on a well-known fairy tale and asking the readers to interact with the book as the characters break that "fourth wall" and talk to them. The illustrations are appropriately silly without being over the top. This book would make a good readaloud for parents or teachers, especially if the latter are doing a unit on fairy tales and want to mix things up with a humorous read in there. Children as young as 3 or 4 might enjoy this book, but I think it would work best with children in elementary school. ( )

When a little alien crashes out of his own storybook and into the one belonging to the Three Little Bears, he's desperate to get back before page 27, when he must save his planet from invading numbers. Unfortunately, all of Papa Bear's ideas to get him home prove unsatisfactory. It falls to Little Bear, who suggests getting the reader involved, to solve the problem...

The second fractured fairy-tale retelling I have read from author Tara Lazar, following upon her Little Red Gliding Hood, this meta-fictional mash-up of a story mixes an alien visitor and those three well-known ursine heroes, resulting in an entertaining picture-book adventure. The artwork by Benji Davies, creator of such wonderful picture-books as The Storm Whale and The Storm Whale in Winter, is colorful and appealing, ably capturing the humor of the story. Recommended to young fractured fairy-tale fans, as well as to devotees of stories featuring aliens. ( )

funny ... ( )