Me and You (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Me and You Deborah Stevenson Browne, Anthony . Me and You; written and illus. by Anthony Browne. Farrar, 2010. 32 p. ISBN 978-0-374-34908-0 $16.99 R 6-9 yrs. Popular wisdom claims that there are two sides to every story, and Browne brings his inimitable style to exploring each side’s view of Goldilocks’ famous excursion into the house of the bears. The narrative begins with the bears, a chipper family that dwells in a butter-yellow house in a sunny, green landscape; the trio is depicted in softly textured colored pencil that conveys innocence through its approximation of coloring-book figures and confidence and roomy ease through the expansive full-page images. Meanwhile, Goldilocks is a contemporary urban girl in a rigidly geometrical, near-monochromatic landscape (her yellow hair just peeps out from under her hoodie) that’s cramped into shrunken panel views. The stylistic difference is particularly marked when the two viewpoints converge: Goldilocks’ view of the suspicious bear trio is structurally parallel to the bears’ take, but the mood is very different indeed. Yet the text, narrated by a Baby Bear somewhat lost and lonely amid the occasionally tense grownup interaction, suggests that there was a bit of an opportunity for connection missed (“I wonder what happened to her?” BB muses as he looks sadly out the window). The result is a work that’s both playfully interpretive and interestingly thought-provoking at a youthful level, raising some easily discussable questions: what would it be like to encounter fairy-tale events in real life? How does point of view affect a narrative? Kids who thought they were well past stories of bear-cottage break-ins will reconsider a story they’ve been taking for granted. [End Page 65] Copyright © 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois