Dusty Locks and the Three Bears - Hardcover

Lowell, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805058621 ISBN 13: 9780805058628

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2001

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Susan Lowell comes from a long line of ranchers. She spends part of her time on a small ranch in the desert and the rest of her time in Tucson, Arizona. She is the author of several best-selling books for children, including Little Red Cowboy Hat and The Three Little Javelinas.

Randy Cecill is the illustrator of Little Red Cowboy Hat, as well as The Singing Chick by Victoria Stenmark. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Right from the start, readers can tell that this cowboy boot-wearing heroine is a wild'un. Even on the copyright page, she kicks up a huge trail of dust as she determinedly chases a skunk into the woods. Dusty Locks "hadn't had a bath for a month of Sundays" and runs away from home without stopping to kiss her mother good-bye. So it comes as no surprise that this spunky gal hardly minds her manners while breaking into and entering the log cabin of the bear family (consisting of a "little bitty bear cub, just knee-high to a bumblebee,... a mild-mannered middle-size mama... and a great big humpbacked gray-haired grizzly, nine feet tall and cross as two sticks"). While the trio takes a walk to let their red-hot beans cool, she tastes the papa grizzly's too-tangy food, burps after licking the young bear's plate clean and gets "madder than a half-squashed hornet" when the cub's stool falls apart under her weight. Cecil's acrylic gouache illustrations add western flourishes to the setting and costumes, and depict an amusing range of expressions on the faces of the trespasser and her victims. With its zippy lines and range of voices from papa's "rough gruff" growling to his offspring's "little bitty baby voice" this should be a read-aloud hit. The creators of Little Red Cowboy Hat add ample doses of comic hyperbole to pull off another spicy spoof. Ages 4-8.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3-6. Set "way out West," this lively retelling is true to the traditional Goldilocks story, except that the adventurer is a mean, dirty runaway who enjoys the bear cub's beans so much that "she gobbled them all up, licked the saucer clean, and burped." When she breaks the bear cub's stool, she stomps upstairs, she's madder than a half-squashed hornet. The bear family are true to form, and their ritual, "Who's been sitting on my chair?" is as deliciously scary and funny as ever. The western storytelling voice combines the laid-back tall tale with warm affection, making clear that it's that "heavy little roughneck" who invades the bears' cozy home. Cecil's bright acrylic gouache pictures extend the rhythm of the words with a rugged western landscape; a messy, scowling girl; and three bears in cowboy boots, including a great, roaring father bear. Kids will enjoy the play with the original version, but this will also work wonderfully as a first telling of the folktale. Forget that sweet, goody, little golden girl. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805058621
• ISBN 13: 9780805058628
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Cecil Randy
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32