Cinderella

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.

September 20, 2004
Nearly two decades after its original publication, Susan Jeffers's detailed pen-and-ink and dye illustrations once again grace Charles Perrault's Cinderella (1985), retold by Amy Ehrlich. PW called Ehrlich's retelling "absorbing easily grasped," while the artwork "shows Jeffers's gifts at their dazzling best." .

Starred review from October 31, 2005
McClintock (Goldilocks and the Three Bears
) salutes the visual styles of Caldecott and Greenaway in her delectable picture books. This Cinderella, based on Perrault's version, takes place in a sumptuous, Versailles-inspired palace where the heroine sleeps "on a thin mattress in the dingy attic" above her stepsisters' brocaded shell-pink boudoir. After the stepsisters depart for the royal ball, Cinderella's fairy godmother appears, draped in seafoam-green ruffles and lighting the dusk-blue evening with a radiant glass orb on a slender stick. Two nights in a row, the godmother conjures a rococo golden carriage, and Cinderella gets not one but two outfits, first a ballooning pink gown with a floral headdress, and then a champagne-gold and lavender number that will floor young fashionistas. McClintock's pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations emulate old-fashioned wood engravings, and the traditional story seems suffused with magic. Yet she adds contemporary touches too, in her balance of fast-moving comics sequences and closely observed moments. Cinderella and the smitten prince "danced all night, chatting with the ease of old, close friends," and at the end, the former chambermaid introduces each of her stepsisters to "a suitable nobleman... They were all terribly sorry about how they had treated her, and everyone lived happily ever after, forever and a day." A splendid (and kind-spirited) retelling of a well-known tale. Ages 4-8.

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.

May 13, 2002
Elegant paintings of a cavernous castle and an enchanted countryside distinguish this retelling of the transformed maiden. Ages 5-8.