Evaluation of my children’s book

Structure My narrative has a linear structure, which means the events in the story

happen in chronological order. My story “What actually happened to Goldilocks” is told in order of what happened, the opening (what happens in the beginning of the book); goldilocks finding the cottage, conflict (problems the characters may come across in the book); the bears finding out that someone is in their house and has broken or stolen things then the resolution (the conclusion of the book); finding out who’s in the bears house and who is sleeping in their beds. I chose to do a linear structure, as children are familiar with this because classic fairytales like “Goldilocks and the three bears” are told with a linear structure because it much simpler and easier for children to understand.

My story has a single strand structure, which means one character is the protagonist throughout the narrative in the same setting. A multiple stranded narrative is when scenes jump from one character in one setting, to another character in another setting. Although my narrative has multiple characters the 1st part of the story is focused on Goldilocks, where as the 2nd part of the story is focused on the bears, but they are both set in the same cottage, so it is a single stranded narrative.

“What actually happened to Goldilocks” is an anti-realist narrative. It tells a non-realistic myth/fairytale, as its based off a classic fairytale “Goldilocks and the three bears” which is also an anti-realistic narrative. I chose to do an anti realistic narrative because I feel that children connect better with an anti-realistic narrative because children have a good imagination and they love to use it. What makes my book anti-realistic is the fact that the bears have human characteristics; they can talk, they own their own house, and another unusual and unrealistic part of my story is that the furniture is made out of sweets.

My narrative is an open narrative, which means it does not reach a conclusion, it doesn’t finish and could go on and explain what will happen next, but I wanted to leave my book at a cliff hanger to create suspense. My story “What actually happened to Goldilocks” is an open ended twist of the classic closed fairytale “Goldilocks and the three bears”. My narrative ends where the bears find the wolf in their beds that had eaten our protagonist Goldilocks, this leaves the rest to the child’s imagination of what could happen next. This process gets the child thinking, a few questions children might have could be “Can goldilocks be saved?” “How are the bears going to react to the wolf in their house?”

My open-ended narrative “What actually happened to Goldilocks” finishes with an enigma which is a puzzle technique used to intrigue the reader. Unlike the classic “Goldilocks and the three bears” my book has a plot twist ending. In my children’s narrative Goldilocks is not found in baby bear’s bed, but the wolf from the classic fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood” is instead leaving the reader wondering what could of happened to goldilocks and why is the wolf there instead?

A climax is the most important or exciting or intense point in a story, which changes the characters fate. My narrative “What actually happened to Goldilocks”, also consist of a climax. Goldilocks is fast asleep in the bear’s bed whilst the bears are searching the home finding unusual things. The bears hear a noise are walk to the bedroom, to see what’s making the strange noises they are hearing. The audience know goldilocks is in their bed and the strange noise her snoring. There is an intense build up, (the climax), as the bears lift up the duvet covers, to find the wolf, who must have eaten Goldilocks. My narrative does not include any manipulation of time and space, everything is happening in chronological order there are no flash backs and know premonitions, there will be no stretching out time and no condensing it. Everything happens in a linear order to make it less complicated and easier for children to understand what is happening.