Dusty Locks and the Three Bears

From a distance, perhaps through squinted eyes, Dusty Locks appears to be a Wild West cousin to the more famous Goldilocks. Close up, she seems more closely related to the dirt magnet Pig Pen of "Peanuts" fame. This harum-scarum cowgirl, on the lam from her mother, hasn't bathed "for a month of Sundays," and, with her propensity for chasing skunks, is fairly ripe by the time she arrives in a cloud of dust at the home of three grizzly bears. With nary a thought for her unsuspecting hosts, who have just stepped out for a walk to allow their dinner to cool, Dusty Locks tastes and spits out their beans (except for those of the little bitty bear cub, which are just right), plunks herself down on each of their chairs, and generally wreaks havoc on the tidy cabin before collapsing on baby bear's just-right bed. Readers steeped in fairy tales can guess the rest: the grizzlies return, Dusty Locks flees, and her mother scolds, scrubs, hugs, and kisses Dusty Locks into someone who looks a lot more like Goldilocks than she did before--aside from the western wear and sly, roguish expression.

Susan Lowell's version of the old favorite does not veer too far off course from the original. It's her language ("Well, I'll be bumfuzzled!" "Land sakes! Smells mighty whiffy in here!" "I'm so hungry I could eat a saddle blanket!") and Randy Cecil's very amusing acrylic gouache illustrations that give this retelling its delightfully piquant flavoring. Lowell and Cecil have also teamed up on another fairy tale with a western twist: Little Red Cowboy Hat (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter