Just So Stories

Scholastic Australia

January 2026

• ISBN : 978176152884
• Imprint : Scholastic Press
• RRP: $19.99

We love a fractured fairytale – we do, we do!! By ‘we’ I mean those of us who teach and regularly teach fairytales. And that’s as much a part of secondary literacy as it is primary-based. Traditional tales – in all their guises: fairytale, folk tale, myths, legends, Dreaming stories – are part of the rich fabric of human existences stretching back for millenia.

Because of most readers’ easy familiarity with these, they make for such rich fodder in the creative writing space. Just as the original tellers of these tales would have told and re-told them with their own variations, setting readers the challenge to improvise or parody a fairy story, can lead to so much vibrant imaginative creativity.

All of that means that this new one from the talented Kathryn Apel and Beau Wylie team will spark much fun and many fanciful innovations in your teaching space. It’s taking the Goldilocks and the Three Bears into territory they’ve not yet been in. While Goldilocks maintains her reputation as a trespasser and vandal, the Bear family is not just out for a nice constitutional while their porridge cools. They are, in fact, intent on robbing a bee hive of honey. The evidence is incontrovertible and the ensuing repercussions justly deserved. And that’s just as well for Goldy, who not only escapes becoming the next dish on the Bears’ menu but also makes off with the added bonus of some illegally obtained honey – sneak thief!

The word play is just fabulous and, as usual, Beau Wylie’s illustrations are brimming over with hilarious expressions and details (love the family portraits on the wall, including Father Bear in his graduation regalia – what might he be qualified in? Claw and Order? Studies of Shakesbear? Graduate of Ursa Major University?).

Whether you are choosing to incorporate it into your teaching program or just for a light-hearted shared read, it will easily lend itself to multiple extension ideas. I happily give it a 5 🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯rating for kiddos from Prep to Year 4 (or older if you’re using it in your English program obviously).