Dusty Locks and the Three Bears [Hardcover]

Susan Lowell (Author), Randy Cecil (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001 | Age Level: 4 and up

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

From Publishers Weekly

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.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805058621
• ISBN-13: 978-0805058628
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,845,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible!, June 15, 2003

By 

Meg (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears (Hardcover)

I am an elementary art teacher and I checked out this book from my school library to read to my 3rd grade classes before they started work on fairy tale puppets. We all loved it! So I brought it home for my husband and my infant son. My 10 month old sat through the book with out a peep -except for giggles- over and over again. So we bought it for my husband for father's day. I am ordering more books by this author right away. It is just so fun to read it with a southern drawl and do all those crazy bear voices! I also love the illustrations. The characters have great facial expressions! I LOVE THIS BOOK! BUY IT RIGHT AWAY!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contains one little bear cub, just knee-high to a bumblebee, March 5, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears (Hardcover)

It stands to reason that if you're going to redo the classic story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" then you need some kind of a hook. First of all, the story's a classic lesson in rudeness. Goldilocks is rude rude rude. So why not go a step further? Why not make her rude AND stinky? Better yet, rude, stinky, AND mean to her mama? And if you're going to do all that, you'd best be changing her name as well. Goldilocks? Heck no. This child is now Dusty Locks. Now place this entire story in the West, somewhere around Colorado maybe, and you've got yourself one heckuva story. Author Susan Lowell and illustrator Randy Cecil have come together to tell a version of Goldilocks that surpasses the original. You want to tell the story of the three bears but do it in a fun way that kids are sure to love? "Dusty Locks" has your number.

Now what kind of bears live out west? Grizzly bears, that's who. So three cowboy boot wearing, vest doffing, huge belt buckle sporting bears one day go for a walk. While they do so, the nefarious Dusty Locks, outfitted in grass-stained overalls and oversized boots of her own, breaks into their home. After all, "those grizzlies were fine, upstanding, law-abiding critters, honest as the day is long, and they never locked their door". More fool they, for Dusty begins to meticulously tear apart their little home. First she devours their beans. I liked the detail that the great big grizzly bear liked his beans, "chock-full of chile peppers". Then she pounds their chairs into smithereens. Finally, she proceeds to find somewhere to sleep and rest her weary rotten little head. The bears return, discover the destruction in full, and wake the stinky gal up. After she flees home her mother loves her into an entirely new little girl and the bears never saw her again, "or if they did... they never recognized her".

Much like fellow drawl-infused picture book, "Swamp Angel" by Anne Isaacs, this book is a pleasure to read aloud. From the gruff big bear to the squeaky little bear to the southern ladylike mama bear, you can get a lot of mileage from this puppy. Couple that with Randy Cecil's inventive illustrations and you've got yourself a magnificent storytime tale. Cecil's pictures seem cartoony and none too inventive at first. But then you start noticing little details here and there. For example, why do the three bears have three chairs to sit on? To play their instruments and sing at night, of course. How does Dusty Locks stumble on their abode? She (evil child that she is) chases a skunk there. A skunk, I might add, that pops up more than once throughout this story. So with funny pictures and a one-of-a-kind narrative voice this book's a surefire winner with any childlike crew. Consider it recommended tenfold, and then some.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE THIS WORK!, August 30, 2006

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful redo to the classic Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Here we have a western flavor thrown in and our heroine is a grubby little girl with really bad manners. The whole twist on the story is an absolute hoot, right down to the author's syntax. The illustrations are absolutely great and go with the story perfectly. I have read this story to second, third and forth graders and they all loved it. I must admit to this being one of my favorites and I usually don't like it when someone misses with a classic. In this case the author and illustrator were able to pull it off. I actually think this one might be better than the first. At the very least, kids can relate to it better. I cannot recommend this one highly enough.