DONALD DUCK AND THE ONE BEAR

Donald Duck And The One Bear
Publisher: Western
Edition: Fifth (1981)
First pressing: 1978
Pages: 24

Yes, one more Golden Book to round out the first three posts. Subtitled "A Turn-About Tale," this is a reversal of the three bears story. And so we have a bear sampling food, seating, and beds in a stranger's house, not vice versa. The stranger is Donald Duck, who has gone to the trouble of making three fresh pizzas: a sausage one for his nephews, a pepperoni one for Daisy, and a pineapple and sardine one for himself. Donald and his nephews leave the pizzas to cool while they fetch Daisy, allowing a passing bear to encounter the delicious scent wafting out an open window.

And so the bear tries each pizza, finding the pepperoni too hot and the sausage too cold. But Donald's pie, whose toppings evoked such digust in his nephews, is perfect. Ditto his rocking chair and finally his bed. When Donald returns home with his nephews -- who always speak one after another -- and Daisy, he is shocked at the evidence of an intruder. In the book's oddest moment, and a knowing nod to the original story, Donald spots his overturned chair and shouts, "Somebody sat in my rocker and broke it to pieces." The chair isn't broken at all, as we see from the illustration, and Daisy and the nephews try to explain that it's just overturned, but Donald is "too angry to listen."

When the bear is found in Donald's bed, Donald is too frightened to confront it. Just then, a man comes to the door who turns out to be Charlie, owner of Charlie's Pizza. The bear is his pet and the shop's mascot of sorts: "Our slogan is 'When you're as hungry as a bear, eat Charlie's Pizza'." The bear's name is even Pizza, and lo and behold, sardines and pineapple are his favorite toppings. Charlie thanks Donald and company for finding his bear, leaving them with three large pizzas free of charge. But all three are decked out in sardines and pineapple, disappointing Daisy and the nephews but leading Donald to revise his stance on the intruder: "I liked that bear from the moment I saw him."

It's cute, then. The illustrations are in keeping with these well-known Disney characters, and the story's twist is quirky fun. (There is no author or illustrator credited, unfortunately.) It would work even if someone didn't get the reversal of a famous story, but of course it's hard to miss. And there's a nice bit of slapstick when Pizza sits down in the chair where Daisy has left her knitting and winds up with some needles in his backside. Again, cute.