PUSS IN COWBOY BOOTS

First-timer Jan Huling retells the treasured Perrault fairy tale with a Texas twang. "Deep in the wilds of Texas," a humble rodeo clown named Clem "up and kicked the bucket," and it is his youngest son, Dan, who inherits Clem's scraggly old tomcat, Puss. Dan figures the only way he can profit from Puss is by cooking him into a pot of three-alarm chili and using his fur for a hatband. As clever Puss saves his hide (and earns wealth and respect for Dan) with the help of a shiny pair of red snakeskin cowboy boots, the text hews fairly faithfully to the outlines of Perrault's plot. The rootin'-tootin' cowboy vernacular gives this adaptation a fun, feisty flavor. ("Why, looky here!" says the oilman who substitutes for the customary king, "A wild turkey! Why, I remember huntin' these with my pa when I was no bigger than a frog's hair"). Phil Huling's (Moses in Egypt) watercolors depict an orange-yellow sun-baked landscape dotted with oil rigs, cacti and plenty of long, tall Texans. The stylized figures and serene compositions play straight man to the wily text. Ages 6-9. (June)