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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.