(4) K-3 Illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen. "We're going to see the Elephant...That's what people say when they head west." As her family travels to California, Lily Rose keeps alert for a pachyderm and helps her grandmother sew quilt squares. The joke goes on too long and the down-home dialogue can be grating, but the folk-style illustrations incorporating stitches and traditional quilt motifs nicely reflect the family's experiences. Reading list. Bib.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Randy Cecil. Here is Goldilocks relocated to the American West. The stylized costumes and geographically generated idiom place the story less in the Wild West and more on the faux frontier of a dude ranch. Still, the language encourages dramatic reading aloud. The flat reds, purples, pinks, and oranges clash with one another, creating a dissonance much like the havoc Dusty Locks wreaks in the bears' house.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2001

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Jane Manning. Wielding a golden pistol, Cindy Ellen's fairy godmother not only conjures up riding clothes and diamond-studded spurs for Cindy, she gives her gumption, and Cindy outrides everyone at the rodeo, winning the heart of the cattle king's son. Expressive regional turns of phrase and exuberant full-color comic illustrations in skewed perspectives place the action squarely in the dry desert of the West.

Reviewer: Pamela McCuen