Overview
Magic happens when Newbery Medalist Nancy Willard and best-selling illustrator Jane Dyer combine talents in an imaginative retelling of this best-loved fairy tale, focusing on the ever-popular dress.
With Nancy Willard's characteristic verbal wit and Jane Dyer's beautiful, detailed paintings, this charming book will be irresistible to young girls who know the Cinderella story and love it. In this version, two magpies who live outside Cinderella's window make her a magnificent dress from bits of shiny paper they've collected. The jealous stepsisters rip it apart, and Cinderella is left in rags--until thanks to her friends the magpies she finds a magic ring belonging to her late mother. Her fairy godmother appears, and a new dress, a coach made of a pumpkin, and happy endings follow.
Although mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, Cinderella meets her prince with the help of two magpies and her fairy godmother.
Synopsis
With Nancy Willard's characteristic verbal wit and Jane Dyer's beautiful, detailed paintings, this charming book will be irresistible to young girls who know the Cinderella story and love it. In this version, two magpies who live outside Cinderella's window make her a magnificent dress from bits of shiny paper they've collected. The jealous stepsisters rip it apart, and Cinderella is left in rags--until thanks to her friends the magpies she finds a magic ring belonging to her late mother. Her fairy godmother appears, and a new dress, a coach made of a pumpkin, and happy endings follow.
Publishers Weekly
Lilting poetry and a couple of warm-hearted magpies add a new dimension to the familiar tale. In a tree outside Cinderella's window, two birds confer about the lonely girl inside, their plan captured in Willard's (A Visit to William Blake's Inn) deft verse: "She lights the stove and draws the water./ Her father's weak, her mother's dead./ Nobody tucks her into bed./ This stepsister they love to hate,/ let's make her our adopted daughter." Dyer's (I Love You Like Crazy Cakes) watercolors revel in a fairy-tale mix of eras and objects; Cinderella's cruel stepmother wears a two-horned medieval headdress, but there's a bicycle parked outside the door. When the famous invitation arrives, the magpies craft Cinderella a magnificent dress from tissue, leaves, petals and loot from their nest; the magpie mamma withholds only a golden ring she wears on her tail. But the stepsisters ruin the dress, and Cinderella cries, "If only I hadn't lost the ring/ Mother gave me before she died./ She said `Hammered from fairy gold,/ this simple band can change your fate.' " Mamma magpie, dismayed, realizes that her ring is really Cinderella's, and her decision to return it ushers in the reversal of the girl's fortunes. Omitting the scenes at the ball, the story's focus shifts away from courtship and romance, and instead considers the tenets of friendship. Dyer's art and Willard's poetry seem entwined; it's a graceful match, likely to cast its spell on fairy-tale fans. Ages 4-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Lilting poetry and a couple of warm-hearted magpies add a new dimension to the familiar tale. In a tree outside Cinderella's window, two birds confer about the lonely girl inside, their plan captured in Willard's (A Visit to William Blake's Inn) deft verse: "She lights the stove and draws the water./ Her father's weak, her mother's dead./ Nobody tucks her into bed./ This stepsister they love to hate,/ let's make her our adopted daughter." Dyer's (I Love You Like Crazy Cakes) watercolors revel in a fairy-tale mix of eras and objects; Cinderella's cruel stepmother wears a two-horned medieval headdress, but there's a bicycle parked outside the door. When the famous invitation arrives, the magpies craft Cinderella a magnificent dress from tissue, leaves, petals and loot from their nest; the magpie mamma withholds only a golden ring she wears on her tail. But the stepsisters ruin the dress, and Cinderella cries, "If only I hadn't lost the ring/ Mother gave me before she died./ She said `Hammered from fairy gold,/ this simple band can change your fate.' " Mamma magpie, dismayed, realizes that her ring is really Cinderella's, and her decision to return it ushers in the reversal of the girl's fortunes. Omitting the scenes at the ball, the story's focus shifts away from courtship and romance, and instead considers the tenets of friendship. Dyer's art and Willard's poetry seem entwined; it's a graceful match, likely to cast its spell on fairy-tale fans. Ages 4-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
Full-page portraits of stunning gowns, a unique rhyming scheme, and the charming goodness of two magpies grace the pages of yet another adaptation to the Cinderella collection. Author Nancy Willard and illustrator Jane Dyer have crafted a fairytale brimming with nifty twists and delicate watercolors that will beckon little girls who are enchanted by sparkling jewels, ribbons, lace, and happy endings. The cozy nest that houses a pair of scavenger magpies allows them to peer into the wealthy merchant's windows and snatch up a multitude of gems that shimmer, dream, and shine. Cinderella's beauty shines through and they take her "under their wing" creating the dress of their adopted daughter's dreams to wear at the prince's ball. It's half past eight and the jealous stepsisters, Flora Ann and Fanny Alice, depart to the palace while Cinderella attempts to mend the torn and tattered magpie's handiwork. Thinking her dreams are dashed, Cinderella expresses regret for loosing her mother's gold ring—the one trinket mamma magpie wore on her tail and failed to share. She shook it off, the fairy godmother appeared, and the rest is magical history. "I got it from the magpie's beak." 2003, Blue Sky Press, Ages 4 to 8.— Barbara Troisi