Ravenlocks and the Three Ice Bears: The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett

As winter settles in, Jan Brett's recent retelling of the venerable Goldilocks tale, The Three Snow Bears, seems just right for the season.

Aloo-ki, an Inuit girl, is out on a fishing expedition when her sled dogs begin to drift away on an ice floe. Trying to follow, she finds an igloo with promise of warmth and hot soup drifting from its smoke hole. Inside no one is home, but Aloo-ki samples the three bowls of breakfast broth cooling on the table, tries on the three sets of boots beside the fire, and with a "Time for a nap" and a yawn finally falls asleep in a just-right pile of warm furs nearby.

Meanwhile a family of polar bears, strolling while their soup cools, come upon some adrift Huskies. Mama and Papa Bear slip into the icy ocean to push the dogs to safety and tie them outside their igloo. Inside, Baby Bear discovers his soup gone, his boots askew, and someone snoozing in his sleeping furs.

Awaking to the frightening sight of three looming snow bears, Aloo-ki dives between Papa Bear's huge legs and makes her escape. Finding her sled and dog team just outside, she hops aboard and flies toward home over the ice, not forgetting to wave a thank-you to the bemused bears she leaves behind.

Brett's Arctic re-setting of the old English story of a trespassing lass is deft, and her portrayals of the facial expressions of the venturesome girl and the bears who suffer a home invasion are charmingly humorous, but it is her beautiful landscapes and backgrounds, in their palette of whites, grays, and ice blues, with touches of warm brown and deep red, which light up the well worn story with a fresh touch. Brett journeyed to Inuit lands to prepare her paintings for this book, and the touches of native decorative patterns in the clothes and in the frames around each picture give the well-traveled story a firm sense of place.