Cinderella

Title: Cinderella

Retold by Cynthia Rylant

Illistrations by Mary Blair

Summary: Classic story of Cinderella. Cinderella is forced to live with her step mother and her evil step sisters. Cinderella ends up going to the ball where the prince is looking for his princess. She loses her slipper and the prince eventually finds out that the slipper belongs to her and they live happily ever after.

I have always loved the story of Cinderella, because it gives all little girls and boys a sense of romance. That people can be together no matter what their social class. That love is something that is magical and mysterious, something that people can’t define, but that they just know. In this story retold by Cynthia Rylant we feel a sense of sorrow for Cinderella. I have always enjoyed fairy tales, and I think they are a great way for children to stretch their imagination. In addition I think fair tales are a great way for everything to end up happy and sparkly in the end. One part in this fairy tale that made me a little uneasy was a whole page devoted to how a man finds his wife by walking into a room looking around seeing a girl touching her and knowing that they are going to be together. This is so unrealistic and it’s almost hard to read without laughing. Cinderella plays a very passive role throughout the story, waiting for her chance to go to the ball which comes when her fairy god mothers comes, and then waiting for the prince to come find her again, which he eventually does by using the glass slipper. Although I do not think that any fairy tale, especially Cinderella, should be used to teach about real life, I do not think there is any problem when children reading them. The drawings by Mary Blair were so exquisite, that the story felt like a dream. They were so fantastical, almost looking like they were going to drip right off of the page. I had a great time reading Cinderella and although it might not have been the most politically correct, I think it is a great fairy tale.