Dora's Three Little Fairy Tales Book

Sheryl O'Sullivan - Children's Literature

This book is based upon the TV series, "Dora the Explorer" and as such is one of the recently popular book/toys that are marketed as tie-ins to popular television shows. The three fairy tales that are retold are, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," "The Lucky Table," and "The Three Little Pigs." Two of these tales are well known, and their retellings are conventional, but "The Lucky Table" may be less familiar. It is a version of a numskull tale that has the main character Bobo selling his cow to a trickster for a worthless table. When the table becomes heavy, Bobo drops it onto a gang of robbers who are frightened into leaving their treasure, which Bobo collects. Dora's TV persona occasionally throws Spanish words into her otherwise English speech, and this book also continues this device. However, only a very few Spanish words are included. In fact, in the first story only the word for bear is changed, in the second story the greeting, "Buenas Tardes," is the only Spanish, and the third story contains no Spanish at all. The illustrations are corporate productions based upon the TV characters. The format of the book, which is an oversized board book, is meant to be useful to very young children who might tear the pages of a regular book. However, the length of the book and number of words on each page will probably not be tolerated by any child young enough to need a board book. 2005, Simon and Schuster, Ages 3 to 5.