Dusty Locks and the Three Bears

Title: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears

Author: Susan Lowell

Illustrator: Randy Cecil

Publisher & Publication Date: Scholastic Inc., 2001

Genre: Traditional literature, Picture book

Grade Level: K-1

Summary: In this story a dirty little girl named Dusty Locks sneaks into the house of three bears. The bears left to go on a walk to let their beans cool. Dusty Locks goes into the house and tries the beans, sits in their chairs and then lays in their beds. She falls asleep in the baby bears' bed. The three bears come back and find her asleep in the bed, so they wake her and she goes running out the door. She goes back home and her mom cleans her up. The bears see her in public but don't recognize her because she is so much cleaner than before.

Response: This is a funny picture book. It is very similar to the original three bears story I heard when I was younger. I thought it was cute the way the girl was called a dirty little girl and her name was Dusty. I really enjoyed reading the story it made me feel like a little girl sitting with my mom reading again. It brought back good childhood memories. The illustrations were mainly single-page spreads, but there were a couple double-page spreads. The images were produced with acrylic gouache. I thought they were really basic illustrations, nothing too fancy.

Teaching Ideas: This would be a good book to use in discussion groups. Put the students in groups of four and give each group a copy of the book. Have them read it together and then talk about the setting, characters, plot, illustrations, and text in the book. This is a good way to start children thinking about the different elements of a story or book. Make sure you give them a sheet with the different elements on it so they know what to look for and talk about. This would tie in with the lesson on "What is in a book?" Young students need to learn the different parts of a story and should be able to talk about them before the first writing test. This would be a fun activity to use in order to teach the elements.