About the Holiday
All this week, we celebrate Engineers and Engineering! Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPA) in 1951, Engineering Week focuses on increasing an understanding of and interest in engineering and other technical careers to ensure a diverse and well-educated engineering workforce for the future. More than seventy engineering, education, and cultural societies and more than fifty corporations and government agencies cooperate to raise public awareness of engineers’ contributions to our quality of life. Throughout the week they work to foster a recognition in parents, teachers, and students of the importance of a technical education as well as a high level of math, science, and technology literacy. By reaching out to schools, businesses, and community organizations across the country, they hope to motivate young people to pursue engineering careers. For Introduce a Girl to Engineering, or Girl Day, educators, engineers, volunteers, and others demonstrate engineering activities, show girls how engineers change our world, and provide mentors to guide tomorrow’s engineers. To learn more about Engineering Week and today’s holiday in particular, visit the NSPA website.
Goldilocks and the Three Engineers
Written by Sue Fliess | Illustrated by Petros Bouloubasis
“In a tiny bungalow, / there lived a clever thinker. / Young Goldilocks invented things. She’d make and craft and tinker.” Goldilocks made lots of useful things, like machines to help you tie your shoes, to a self-zipping zipper to a hat outfitted with a flashlight, magnifying glass, and itty-bitty satellite dish to help you find the things you’ve lost. But one day, Goldilocks found that she had “inventor’s block,” so she decided to take a walk.
Image copyright Petros Bouloubasis, 2021, text copyright Sue Fleiss, 2021. Courtesy of Albert Whitman & Company.
At the same time, the Bear family was out gathering nuts and berries for their pre-hibernation celebration. Baby Bear had a nifty contraption that knocked fruit and nuts into a basket with a tennis racquet. Papa Bear had an ingenious wheelbarrow with mechanical arms and hands that picked berries one by one and deposited them in the cart—but only after tossing them through a tiny basketball hoop. Swish! And Mama Bear’s handy vacuum sucked fruit right off the bushes and collected them in a tank.
Their next stop was the beehive at the top of a hill. After they’d eaten all their goodies, Baby Bear spied a little bungalow. The Bears thought it was just the place to spend the winter. When they went inside, they found “the room was full of strange devices, / widgets, tools, and more!” Looking more closely, Papa Bear found a chair that was perfect for Baby Bear. He marveled that “it feeds you and it wipes your mouth, / and reads you stories, too!” Meanwhile, Mama Bear had discovered a bowl that stirred porridge and a bed that automatically rocked you to sleep.
Image copyright Petros Bouloubasis, 2021, text copyright Sue Fleiss, 2021. Courtesy of Albert Whitman & Company.
Baby Bear loved the chair but wished for one more innovation that would make it just right. Papa Bear found parts and tools and fixed the chair to Baby Bear’s specifications. Mama Bear tasted the porridge and found it lacking one ingredient, so Papa Bear created a porridge-stirrer accessory to add it drop by drop. By now it was dark, and even though Papa Bear thought it wasn’t right to stay, Baby Bear convinced him that one night would be okay.
But when they crawled into bed and turned it on, it rocked so much that it tipped the Bears right onto the floor. There was only one thing to do: “Baby fixed the engine block. / Replace the gears that burned. / Soon the bears were fast asleep… / Then Goldilocks returned.” She saw the chair, tasted the porridge, and then… “heard snoring sounds.” Wide awake now, the bears began to explain. But Goldilocks was not upset. Instead she said, “‘You’ve improved my projects here, / and made them much more fun. / Proving that four brains, by far, / are better than just one!’”
Excited to be inventing again with the bears on board to lend their smart innovations, Goldilocks sends the family off amid promises to “‘…meet up in the spring’” when they will “‘…make the next big thing!’”
Image copyright Petros Bouloubasis, 2021, text copyright Sue Fleiss, 2021. Courtesy of Albert Whitman & Company.
With her fun flip on the Goldilocks story, Sue Fleiss invites kids to indulge their inner inventor with wacky contraptions that can make getting dressed, cooking, going to bed, and chores more exciting. Fleiss’s clever takes on the well-known “just right” chair, porridge, and bed get readers thinking creatively—perhaps even about their own household appliances. While the original story ends with the interloper being chased away, Fleiss’s version shines with the benefits of cooperation, collaboration, and being open to new ideas.
With so many cool inventions to discover on every page, readers will love taking extra time to find and talk about them all. Any young maker would swoon over Petros Bouloubasis’s well-stocked workbench, and readers would have a blast drawing their own gadgets using the tools and supplies depicted. Quirky, abstract landscapes add to the kid-centric ambiance, and just like the Bear family, who drives away in a new vehicle with their full wheelbarrow in tow, readers will look forward to returning to Goldilocks’ little bungalow again and again.
Imagination, creativity, teamwork, and friendship all wrapped up in a clever fractured fairytale—what could be better?! Goldilocks and the Three Engineers is one to add to home, classroom, and public library bookshelves.
Ages 4 – 8
Albert Whitman & Company, 2021 | ISBN 978-0807529973
Discover more about Sue Fleiss and her books on her website.
To learn more about Petros Bouloubasis, his books, and his art, visit his website.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day Activity
Build a Remarkable Recycled Bridge
Engineers are at the core of so many things that make our homes and neighborhoods what they are. Kids will have fun building a bridge from Using items you already have at home or that may even be slated for the recycle bin, kids will have fun making the bridge above and maybe even a whole town! Spaghetti boxes make great roadways, and cut-up egg cartons can be used as supports. Cereal boxes and pasta boxes make skyscrapers, apartment buildings, fire stations, and more. Need a farm silo? Grab a peanut butter jar, aluminum can, or bread crumb container. You can use them as is or—if your kids are sticklers for a little more detail—turn the boxes inside out, tape, and add paint and details! So look around, use your imagination, and get creative!
You can find Goldilocks and the Three Engineers at these booksellers
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million
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