1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Craft, K Y. Cinderella. New York: SeaStar Books, 2000. ISBN 9781587170041
2. PLOT SUMMARY
This is a traditional retelling of Cinderella. An orphaned girl is raised by her stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. She meets the handsome prince while she is tending to a wounded bird in the forest. The stepsisters are invited to several balls. Cinderella comes to the balls beautifully dressed and leaves before midnight. She leaves behind a glass slipper and the prince comes to find her. While fitting the slipper on Cinderella, the prince doesn’t see any rags just her inner beauty. Cinderella forgives her stepsisters, marries the prince and they live happily ever after in a beautiful castle.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The retelling of this story differs slightly because the prince and Cinderella meet in the woods while she is tending to a wounded bluebird. He immediately sees her gentleness and humanity while treating the bird. The bluebird later comes back as the fairy godmother. What has made this book truly unique are the illustrations and use of elegant language. As stated in the book, Craft depicts the setting around the time of Voltaire, who lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth- century France. Every page is framed with ornate fine lined patterns that add a magical appeal to the page. The first initial on each page has its own box with elaborate details that flow beautifully into the framed text. The use of yellows, reds and blues add to the illusion of riches and gold. The medium used is oil over watercolor with such magnificence that captures your eye to search for all the fine details. The dark backgrounds lush with flowers and plants lets you focus on the characters and evokes a special magical fairy tale atmosphere. The gowns and clothes of all the people are filled with such details that you can imagine that they are made of diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. The blue hues in the flowers, clothes, pillows and skies helps you make the connection to the bluebird that Cinderella helped at the beginning of the story. The illustrations create a mood of elegance, wealth and the history period in France during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. K.Y. Craft state he text was adapted from The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book and Andrew Lang’s The Blue Fairy Book.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)- Awards
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2000 (Vol. 68, No. 20)) “This beautiful and very traditional retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale is lavishly illustrated in a very painterly style, with oils over watercolors and placed in imaginary settings of 17th- and 18th-century France. A nice addition to any library or classroom, and a lovely gift book, this is clearly the most elegant of the year's avalanche.”
Marsha Harper (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 13, No. 4))
The unusual part of this Cinderella is the emphasis given to the kindness and generosity of the heroine. She is kind to the birds, to the small animals--even to her haughty, abusive stepsisters.
Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 2000 (Vol. 54, No. 3)) The point of this title is not the storytelling, however, but the lavish illustrations.
Best Books:
Best of the Year, 2000 ; Child Magazine; United States
Booklist Book Review Stars, Nov. 1, 2000 ; United States
Children's Catalog, Eighteenth Edition, Supplement, 2002 ; H.W. Wilson; United States
Children's Catalog, Nineteenth Edition, 2006 ; H.W. Wilson; United States
5. CONNECTIONS
• This book lends itself to comparing and contrasting the different books about Cinderella. You can easily point out the different types of illustrations and the different types of fairy godmothers. This book has a bluebird that Cinderella healed who later returned as the fairy godmother. In other books, what other objects or people were used for the fairy godmother? Explore some other Cinderella books for different animals and fair godmothers.
Cinderella Penguin, or, The little glass flipper 1993 Janet Perlman.
ISBN 9780670847532
The gift of the Crocodile : a Cinderella story 2000 by Judy Sierra ; illustrated by Reynold Ruffins. ISBN 9780689821882
Trollerella 2006 by Karen M. Stegman-Bourgeois ; illustrated by Ethan Long.
ISBN 9780823419180
Chickerella 2005 by Mary Jane and Herm Auch. ISBN 9780823418046
The Turkey Girl : a Zuni Cinderella story retold by Penny Pollock ; illustrated by Ed Young. ISBN 9780316713146
• Different countries have their own versions of Cinderella. Comparisons can be made with different versions. Small groups of students can use a Venn diagram to study the Cinderella stories of two or three countries and then share as a whole group.
The Korean Cinderella 1993 by Shirley Climo; illustrated by Ruth Heller. ISBN 9780060204327
Abadeha : the Philippine Cinderella 2001 adapted by Myrna J. de la Paz ; illustrated by Youshan Tang. ISBN 9781885008176
Adelita : a Mexican Cinderella story 2002 written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. ISBN 9780399238666
The Persian Cinderella 1999 Shirley Climo; art by Robert Florczak. ISBN 9780060267636
The golden sandal : a Middle Eastern Cinderella. 1998 by Rebecca Hickox ; illustrated by Will Hillenbrand. ISBN 9780823413317
The Irish Cinderlad 1996 by Shirley Climo; illustrated by Loretta Krupinski. ISBN 9780060243968
Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society 2005 Adeline Yen Mah. ISBN 9780060567347
Smoky Mountain Rose : an Appalachian Cinderella 1997 by Alan Schroeder ; pictures by Brad Sneed. ISBN 9780803717336
Cendrillon : a Caribbean Cinderella 1998 Robert D. San Souci ; illustrated by Brian Pinkney. ISBN 9780689806681
• Another connection can be made by researching different illustrated books that use the period of history during Voltaire’s lifetime seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in France.
• Students could compare and contrast the socioeconomic differences of the people of France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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