Cinderella: "Classic Folktale

This version of Cinderella sticks to the traditional story I remember from my childhood with a few different additives. What caught my eye about K.Y. Craft's book Cinderella was the illustrations. I looked through the book countless times before actually reading the text. Craft makes this story fit the princess ideal every little girl has through her incredible paintings. The style of the illustrations is based off of artwork from France during the 17th century. The color and detail was the best I have seen yet in any of the children's books I have read. The boarders are even decorated with detail and color. Each illustration told the story and more for me since I am a very visual learner.

The text of this book maybe a little difficult for children depending on what grade it is brought into. I think I would use this book as a read aloud for all grades under 2nd or 3rd. By the 2nd grade, some students maybe able to read some of the book on their own but I still think they would need assistance. Even still, I think this would be a great book to have available for children of any age to look through. They can make up their own version of Cinderella to go along with the illustrations. The text is close to being as detailed as the illustrations and made the story seem like the perfect fairytale to me. In Craft's version, Cinderella lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters after her father dies. She does all of the chores and house work and is mistreated. Cinderella finds a bird in the woods that she ends up nursing back to health. While in the woulds, this is where she first meets the Prince. The bluebird ends up turning into her fairy godmother. For the balls (there are two in this version) the fairy godmother turns the pumpkin into a carriage for Cinderella and mice into coachmen so that she may attend. It is after the second ball, Cinderella loses the glass slipper. When it is returned to her by the prince, he remembers her from their first encounter in the woods. The one thing I did not like about the text in this book was that the stepsisters were forgiven in the end. I think that is a bit to soft. Children like stories where the bad guys get punished and instead, Cinderella kind of just lets them off. While Craft herself has won numerous awards for her art work, I did not find any that were specific to this book.

Craft, K. Y. (2000). Cinderella. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.