Cinderella by Barbara McClintock

Genre: Traditional Literature/Picture Book
Age range: 4-8
Summary: There is nothing in the book that would be found as offensive for younger children. The tale has been told time and time again. Sometimes Cinderella is a killer. Sometimes she does not really fall in love with the prince. But in Barbara McClintock's version, she is the traditional Cinderella. The Cinderella who is patient and kind to her two, ugly stepsisters even though they are nothing but nasty and rude to her. She is a girl who lived a loving life until her father remarried. At first, the new woman was nice. But after the marriage, she became mean almost instantaneously. She ruled the house with an iron fist, and made Cinderella do the most brutal chores and made her live in the attic where is was damp and cold while her stepsisters lived a life of luxury. Cinderella's only source of warmth was her fireplace (hence the name Cinderella). Word got out that the prince of their land would be hosting a ball and that all of the eligible young ladies were to be invited. Cinderella's two stepsisters were bubbling with excitement and requested that Cinderella do their hair. She obliged, but they still prattled on and on about how Cinderella would never be found at a ball for her clothes were too dirty and she smelled too bad. Their sweet and patient sister resisted the urge to pull their hair and sent them happily off to the ball. As they drove away, Cinderella began to cry. Just then, a pleasant stranger asked her what was wrong. Cinderella replied that she wanted to attend the prince's ball, but that she had no way to get there and nothing to wear. The stranger was in turn Cinderella's fairy godmother who turned a pumpkin into a carriage, lizards and mice and rats into people to drive it, and Cinderella's rags into a beautiful gown. There is only one stipulation. Cinderella must leave by midnight. Otherwise, everything will turn back to what it had been and her disguise will have been ruined. The fairy godmother is testimony that you cannot make something out of nothing. The fairy godmother needed random garden instruments so that she could make Cinderella into a beautiful princess and transport her to the ball. The rest of the story goes on as it always has. Cinderella attends the ball and the prince falls madly in love with her, but she has to leave at midnight. Accidentally, the makeshift princess leaves behind her glass slipper. The next day, the prince proclaims that he is going to marry the girl who fits this slipper. And because it belongs to Cinderella, it fits her perfectly (to her family's dismay), and she and the prince live happily ever after. But not before Cinderella forgives her stepmother and couples her ugly stepsisters with nobleman. Cinderella is an example of kindness--even those people are not kind to her.