Susan Lowell, illus. by Jim Harris. Rio Nuevo/Rio Chico (Treasure Chest, dist.), $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-933855-80-6
This holiday offering brings back the stars of The Three Little Javelinas, in which a coyote plays Big Bad Wolf to a trio of piglike Southwestern creatures. On Christmas Eve, the coyote disguises himself as Santa and descends into the javelinas’...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Randy Cecil, Illustrator , illus. by Randy Cecil. Holt $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8050-5862-8
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...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Randy Cecil, Illustrator Henry Holt & Company $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8050-3508-7
This Southwestern version of Little Red Riding Hood features a tomboyish main character, a wolf as sleazy as any streetcorner lothario and a distinct self-defense theme. Lowell's (The Three Little Javelinas) outwardly tough Little Red wears a...
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Susan Lowell, Author, R. W. Scholes, Illustrator Milkweed Editions $9.95 (149p) ISBN 978-0-915943-26-5
The winner of the first Milkweed National Fiction Prize competition, judged by Lopate, this exceptional collection conveys an atmosphere of subdued tension and danger, stemming from the characters' often tenuous ability to make sense of the world,...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Jim Harris, Illustrator Rising Moon Books $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-87358-542-2
In this retelling of The Three Little Pigs set in the American Southwest, the cherished porkers are transformed into javelinas, the hairy, swinelike creatures also known as peccaries. Their pursuer, no longer the wolf of traditional lore, becomes...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Jim Harris, Illustrator Rising Moon Books $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-87358-586-6
As in their The Three Little Javelinas, Lowell and Harris revivify a timeworn tale with a Southwestern setting and a dash of wit. The tortoise here is a bespectacled, parasol-toting marm. Her cocky rival-a singing (``Long, low, LEAP, ho!'')...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Jane K. Manning, Illustrator , illus. by Jane Manning. HarperTrophy $6.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-443864-3
"Savory slang adds punch to this tale, which stresses the fairy godmother's message that 'magic is plumb worthless without gumption.' Illustrations lush with cactus-flower colors and pale maize gold enhance this rawhide-and-lace...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Jane K. Manning, Illustrator Joanna Cotler Books $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-027446-7
Lowell (The Three Little Javelinas) takes a fairy-tale heroine away from the hearth and gives her a home on the range--and teaches readers a thing or two about moxie. Freckle-faced Cindy Ellen, a rancher's daughter, mends fences and mucks out the...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Robin Stancliff, Photographer . Rio Nuevo $14.95 (120p) ISBN 978-1-887896-58-0
"What if the West could taste the way it looks?" asks Lowell. "Clearly some of the great natural phenomena would have to be spectacular desserts!" This imaginative author who has retold traditional children's stories with a...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Timothy Francisco, Author, Paul Mirocha, Illustrator Milkweed Editions $14.95 (198p) ISBN 978-0-915943-39-5
This ambitious first title in the Milkweed for Young Readers line introduces Lavina Cumming of the Bosque Ranch, Arizona Territory. At the turn of the century, the 10-year-old heroine must, at her father's insistence, leave her motherless home to...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Paul Mirocha, Illustrator Milkweed Editions $14.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-57131-605-9
Fiction and how-to directions on paper-folding make an odd coupling in this curious hybrid. Sick with a fever, 11-year-old Paul makes a plane from origami paper (instructions for making the plane are incorporated into the text). When it flies into...
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Susan Lowell, Author, Tom Curry, Illustrator Orchard Books (NY) $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-531-30044-2
In Lowell's (Little Red Cowboy Hat) version of the classic tale, the fashioner of footwear makes boots for cowpokes and rodeo queens while the elves work their magic in cowhide and stitch desert scenes. This cowboy bootmaker is ""so poor that even...
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