Cinderella

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The pictures in this book are a little weird (dogs dressed in old European clothing, complete with wigs, and walking on two feet). But my daughter enjoyed the humor in the illustrations, and the story is well-told without being too wordy. A shy Prince Cinders runs away – leaving his trousers behind him. When the skinny Prince Cinders is the only man who fits the trousers, Princess Lovelypenny proposes immediately. In this Greek version, the young girl gets gifts from Mother Nature (The Sun gave her brilliance, the Moon, beauty etc.). When the prince decides to attend the village church, the orphan must fix her stepsisters’ hair and dress them in lavish new gowns. However, Mother Nature’s gifts allow the orphan to make a radiant appearance at the church door.

Versions of Cinderella - The Measured Mom Versions of Cinderella - The Measured Mom

My three-year-old asked me to read him this silly version many times. Prince Cinders is a “small, spotty, scruffy, and skinny” prince with three big hair brothers. Cinderella tells so many stories that she loses her voice – so of course her stepmother must keep her home from the ball. Older listeners will catch the humor better than preschoolers, and this book would be excellent for a study on point of view.

The Turkey Girl promises, but she has so much fun at the dance that she fails to return in time. In the end, she loses her turkey friends and (we presume) is alone forever. This version features Settareh, a beautiful young woman who catches the attention of the prince at the No Ruz festival. The story is well told, and illustrations are so beautiful that they almost look like photographs. The tale itself is very different from other versions; Settareh uses magic from a tiny glass bottle, and when her stepsisters get their hands on it they turn her into a turtledove. I always love reading aloud a book with fun dialect, so the Appalachian style makes this one extra fun. Just to give you a taste …

Cinderella - Wikipedia

Their fairy godmother gets both girls ready for the ball, and when they arrive, the prince is entranced by both Cin and Tin. Thankfully, the fairy godmother makes a twin for the prince, and the girls have a double wedding. Overall I found the story quite strange, and this wasn’t my favorite. But you may feel differently. Though many women try to prove otherwise, only the Rough-Face girl has seen The Invisible Being. And when she finally meets him face to face, he looks past her scars and sees the beauty inside her.

The ending was a bit weird to me, but I love the clever rhyming text, the integrated math concepts, and the delightful illustrations. Rose meets a rich feller (who “made his fortune in sowbellies and grits”) when he hosts a square dance. Adelita is a young Mexican woman who lives with her cruel stepmother and stepsisters. The bright spot in her life is Esperanza, the kind old woman who had cared for her father when he was a baby. Esperanza helps Adelita reunite with a young man she had known as a child, and the two (of course) marry and live happily ever after.