Cinderella

September 1, 1985
Long before Gutenberg and since his time, storytellers have enjoyed the privilege of adapting, retelling tales rooted in widely different cultures. Perrault's "Cinderella,'' for example, was an established heroine in folklore around the world, centuries before the French writer wrote about the abused maiden. Ehrlich's retelling differs from others' but it's absorbing, easily grasped and no less rewarding than the many versions available, except in one instance. There is no mention of the mean stepmother after Ehrlich introduces her. Gazing at the beautiful, ingenious, color-rich paintings, one forgets such quibbles. The illustrations display Jeffers's gifts at their dazzling best, particularly when she shows the noble steeds prancing and tossing their heads as they carry Cinderella to the ball. The author and the artist have been praised for their previous adaptations of classic tales, but this surpasses them all.

August 29, 1990
According to PW , these lavish illustrations ``display Jeffers's gifts at their dazzling best. The author and the artist have been praised for their previous adaptations of classic tales, but this surpasses them all.'' Ages 4-8.

November 15, 2000
\deflang1033\pard\plain\f0\fs24 Reviewed with Madame D'Aulnoy's Beauty and the Beast.

Gr. 9-12. High-school art students are the likely audience for these handsome new picture-book editions. The mostly straightforward text veers into the archaic and convoluted in parts: "Cinderella, would you not be glad to go to the ball?" ask the stepsisters. "You only jeer me; it is not for such as I am to go thither," she replies. It is both volumes' artwork that is noteworthy. Roberto Innocenti sets \plain\f0\fs24" Cinderella\plain\f0\fs24 in the 1920s, illustrating the clothes, cars, households, and boozy decadence of the era in intricate spreads. High-school students reading \plain\f0\fs24" The \plain\f0\fs24 Great Gatsby or looking for visual representations of the flapper era will pore over these pages. Etienne Delessert's \plain\f0\fs24" Beauty\plain\f0\fs24 takes a more symbolic approach. A fairly representational blond Beauty and Georgia O'Keefe-like flowers blend with startling compositions of abstracted claws and toothy snouts representing the beast. For older design students, both titles offer intriguing examples of how such familiar material can be visually reinterpreted. \plain\f0\fs17 (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)