Book Review: Deep in the Forest by Brinton Turkle

Deep in the Forest. Brinton Turkle. 1976. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. Ages 3 and up.

A bear cub stumbles across a cabin in the woods and wreaks havoc, Goldilocks-style, in this wordless picture book. Although the illustrations are rendered in dark, autumnal colors, the charm of the pictures wasn't lost on my young daughters. They laughed at the cub's antics, and were delighted when he safely escaped back to his mother. Personally, I like this version of Goldilocks, since it makes more sense for a bear cub to wreak that kind of careless havoc than for a little girl to do so.

A short rant about book lengths and lack of editing

I've got about a dozen books in various stages of reading progress, and while they aren't awful, they're not holding my interest very well (hence the dozen), mostly due to the fact that they are needlessly, freakishly, disproportionately long for the plot, action, and characters.
Is it just me or do authors seem to think they need to write epics? Long, droning tomes in serious need of editing. What has happened to editors? Doesn't anyone value pithy, substantive writing anymore? Please, editors, for the love of all that's good and right, wield those red pens with more fervor! Stop the madness!