Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell, Randy Cecil (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

A wild and funny Southwestern Goldilocks.

Way out West live three bears who like to keep their cabin neat and tidy. But one day while they're out for a walk, a dirty little girl named Dusty Locks barges in and helps herself to their supper of beans. The big bear's beans are so full of chile peppers that she burns her mouth. The middle bear's beans don't even have any salt. But the bear cub's beans are just right, so Dusty Locks gobbles them all up. When the bears come home to find their nice, neat house looking like it's been hit by a whirlwind, they get riled -- and Dusty Locks runs home so fast the dust doesn't settle for a week.

The talented team that created Little Red Cowboy Hat works its hilarious magic again in this lively western retelling of Goldilocks.

Children's Literature

This version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is created in a western setting. The porridge turns into beans and the tree chairs come out of the forest. The narrator in the story uses a dialect in the book from someone who has been working on a western ranch. Dusty Locks gets her name because she doesn't take baths. After being discovered by the three bears, she leaves the house like a tumbleweed in a wind storm and returns to her mother, who immediately puts her into the tub. The intricate illustrations show creative details in the story, such as the bed of prickly green branches that great big bear uses for his bed, and the storm Dusty Locks creates when she leaves the house. The book will teach children cleanliness, the different likes and dislikes of individuals, and it will entertain and amuse as well as any good fairy tale. This is a delightful twist on a classic story. 2001, Henry Holt, . Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Nicole Peterson

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2-A humorous and fresh retelling of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" set in the West. The bears live in "a neat and tidy cabin in the woods" and wear cowboy boots, leather vests, and neckerchiefs. When they leave for a morning walk, Dusty Locks, a little girl who "hadn't had a bath for a month of Sundays," arrives at their home. She is so hungry she "could eat a saddle blanket." She tries the big grizzly's beans, but the beans, "chock-full of chile peppers," are "Too hot!" Mama's beans are too plain. And so on. When the bears return and find her asleep in the cub's bed, the big bear growls, "WELL, I'LL BE BUMFUZZLED!" Dusty Locks wakes and vamooses so fast, "the dust didn't settle for a week." Her mother gets ahold of her and scolds, scrubs, rubs, hugs, and kisses her "into a whole new girl entirely." The acrylic gouache illustrations have a cartoonlike quality that contributes to the humorous tone, especially the portrayal of Dusty as a small desperado entering the warm, tight bear family unit. This retelling is not substantially different from the original story, and libraries with adequate collections of the standard version can pass on it.-Adele Greenlee, Bethel College, St. Paul, MN Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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