Alan Schroeder (1)

When Rose's trapper father remarries, her new stepmother, Gertie, makes her life very unpleasant in this Cinderella story set in the Smoky Mountains. Made to do all of the work on the farm, while her stepsisters laze about, Rose remains gentle and kind. When a wealthy man from over the hill throws a party and Rose is left behind, she finds herself assisted by one of the hogs on the farm, who knows a little magic, and sends her off to the celebration in enchanted finery. Sure enough, she wins Seb's heart, and when she must flee at midnight, leaving behind one of her pretty (but impractical) glass slippers, he sets out to find her...

Although there are a number of Cinderella variants that come from Appalachian and other Euro-American lore - see Joanne Compton's Ashpet: An Appalachian Tale for a retelling of one such tale - Alan Schroeder chose to retell the French variant from Perrault in this picture-book, transplanting it to the Smoky Mountains, and giving it a country flavor. I'm not really sure why that was necessary, when there are already American variants of the story to retell, but leaving that aside, the story here was engaging enough. The artwork from Brad Sneed, whose edition of Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina I found quite charming, was lovely, and greatly enhanced my reading pleasure. Although I wouldn't describe this as a favorite, of the many Cinderella retellings I have read, it was entertaining, and I would recommend it to young folk and fairy-tale lovers, as well as to readers interested in the Cinderella story and its many variants.

NOTE: I notice that Schroeder repeats the false claim that the first appearance of Cinderella in world folklore comes from China, and dates to ca. 850 AD. I'm not sure why this misinformation is so widespread - I see it repeated in many places - but in fact, the first recorded version of the Cinderella story was set in ancient Egypt, and comes from the Greek author Strabo, writing in the first century BC. There is also a telling of this story in the Roman author Aelian (ca. 175–235 AD).… (more)