Award-winning storyteller Donna L. Washington has cooked up a delightfully spooky tale in this imaginative twist on the classic "Goldilocks."

Curly Locks is a good-hearted girl, but she's an awful cook. All the townspeople of Toadsuck Swamp know to steer clear of her peculiar dishes—like batwing brownies and toad eye toffees. So it's quite a mystery when one of her dishes goes missing from her windowsill.

Next morning, chaos breaks out in town and word spreads how the Scares of Toadsuck Swamp are running wild and terrorizing the town at mealtime. They shriek "Gitchey Boo, Gitchey Bon! Gitchey Goo, Gitchey Gone!" and send folk running for their lives! But Curly Locks isn't frightened, and she has an inkling her unsavory cooking can help corral those Scares for good.

Exercising tremendous narrative skill, internationally known storyteller Donna L. Washington breathes a spirited new life into an old classic. Her clever, can-do protagonist and joyful language pair brilliantly with Jeffrey Ebbeler's fantasy-like illustrations. This enchanting read is a treat for any time of the year!
Donna L. Washington is a professional storyteller, multiple-award-winning recording artist, and children's book author. She performs all over the country at festivals, schools, and libraries and gives workshops for parents and educators. A graduate of Northwestern University with a BS in speech, she has won numerous awards for her storytelling recordings. She lives with her family in North Carolina, where they have a wonderful time coming up with stories together over meals.

Jeffrey Ebbeler, a graduate of Art Academy of Cincinnati, has been creating art for children for almost twenty years and has illustrated over fifty books. After college he worked for a puppet theater sculpting marionettes and performing. He also created many large-scale animal puppets for the Central Park Zoo. He lives in Ohio.

About

Award-winning storyteller Donna L. Washington has cooked up a delightfully spooky tale in this imaginative twist on the classic "Goldilocks."

Curly Locks is a good-hearted girl, but she's an awful cook. All the townspeople of Toadsuck Swamp know to steer clear of her peculiar dishes—like batwing brownies and toad eye toffees. So it's quite a mystery when one of her dishes goes missing from her windowsill.

Next morning, chaos breaks out in town and word spreads how the Scares of Toadsuck Swamp are running wild and terrorizing the town at mealtime. They shriek "Gitchey Boo, Gitchey Bon! Gitchey Goo, Gitchey Gone!" and send folk running for their lives! But Curly Locks isn't frightened, and she has an inkling her unsavory cooking can help corral those Scares for good.

Exercising tremendous narrative skill, internationally known storyteller Donna L. Washington breathes a spirited new life into an old classic. Her clever, can-do protagonist and joyful language pair brilliantly with Jeffrey Ebbeler's fantasy-like illustrations. This enchanting read is a treat for any time of the year!

Author

Donna L. Washington is a professional storyteller, multiple-award-winning recording artist, and children's book author. She performs all over the country at festivals, schools, and libraries and gives workshops for parents and educators. A graduate of Northwestern University with a BS in speech, she has won numerous awards for her storytelling recordings. She lives with her family in North Carolina, where they have a wonderful time coming up with stories together over meals.

Jeffrey Ebbeler, a graduate of Art Academy of Cincinnati, has been creating art for children for almost twenty years and has illustrated over fifty books. After college he worked for a puppet theater sculpting marionettes and performing. He also created many large-scale animal puppets for the Central Park Zoo. He lives in Ohio.

Reading with Purpose Summit Event

On Monday, June 10th, Penguin Random House Education and DK Learning co-hosted a Reading with Purpose Summit Event in collaboration with Molly Ness, PhD. The event took place at Penguin Random House’s NYC headquarters and included sessions featuring leading education experts and a lunchtime author panel. The in-person professional learning event was built to show

Read more

2024 Elementary School Collection

The Penguin Random House Education Elementary School Collection features outstanding fiction, nonfiction, and picture books from Penguin Young Reader’s, Random House Children’s, DK, and Grupo Editorial, as well as children’s publishers distributed by Penguin Random House. Explore online or download this valuable resource to discover great books in specific topic areas such as: Leveled Readers,

Read more

DK Learning Phonic Books Sampler Request

Thank you for your interest in DK Learning | Phonic Books. To download the DK Learning | Phonic Books sampler with four complete readers, please click here and complete the form. Once your information is successfully submitted, a link to download the sampler will be provided on the confirmation screen.   Click here to learn

Read more

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

Read more