The talented San Souci brothers take on the Brothers Grimm’s “Clever Elsie,” and the result is an entirely new story which, though it retains the folksy quality and quirky absurdity of the original, recasts the characters, adds a moral and tidies up the ambiguous ending. When twin bear cubs Jonas and Juniper are temporarily put in charge of the family farm, chaos quickly ensues. Many of the twins’ problems—and, ironically, the solutions to those problems—come from taking their parents’ directions too literally. For example, they are able to retrieve the family fortune only because, warned to guard the cottage door, they take it with them as they hunt down the thieves, and the door winds up knocking said thieves senseless. By story’s end, the cubs have repaired all the damage they’ve caused and discovered in the process that things go much more smoothly when they put their heads together. Daniel San Souci’s detailed watercolor illustrations contribute to the quaint feel of this effort and lend it a bit of welcome emotional depth as well. (Picture book. 5-10)
