Coville, Katherine Cottage in the Woods, 400 p. Knopf Books
for Young Readers, 2015. $16.99. Language:
G (2 swears); Mature Content: PG (drinking); Violence: PG (fight scene with
blood; two characters jump off cliff and die).
Miss Ursula Brown, a proper young bear just out of school,
is hired as a governess to young Teddy Vaughn. The Cottage in the Woods
is full of “secrets” as items disappear during the night and portraits
watch you as you walk the hallways. As Miss Brown continues her time at
the Vaughn Estate, she becomes involved with the Enchanted Animals’ fight for
peace and equality between the “Enchanteds” and humans. Mrs. Vaughn
eventually tells Miss Brown about the moment they find “Goldilocks” sleeping in
Teddy’s bed upon their return from a walk. “Goldilocks” is a starved,
filthy, savage blonde human, who is taken in by the family for love and
nurturing. When the community finds out about the human girl living with
the bear family, they demand a court decision. Miss Brown and Teddy
must make adult decisions to protect their dear friend, “Goldilocks”, and
the community must come together to save the children and the greater
good.
This clever fractured fairy tale novel weaves several other
fairy tales and nursery rhymes creating a fun story. It had all the
“right” components of a “good” book: adventure, drama, romance, social
justice, yet was incredibly wordy and had an overuse of
sophisticated vocabulary. I’m not really sure which age group for which
this book was written. The length of the book and vocabulary made it
too old for elementary aged students and the cover was too
juvenile for high school students.
MS – OPTIONAL. SL, librarian
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