New England Book Award (1998)

Life is full of surprises for the rat who gets turned into a coachman by Cinderella’s fairy godmother. Susan Meddaugh uses her wit and animated artwork to give a hilarious new take on an old tale in this story of an ordinary rat caught in extraordinary circumstances.

CC and several ILL

This Cinderella spinoff is told by the perspective of a rat, who gets transformed into the coachmen who drives Cinderella to the ball. When this coachmen's sister rat faces death, he brings her to the wizard to turn her into a human too. However, its nearing midnight and the wizard is tired and careless with his spells. I like how this book ties in well with the traditional Cinderella story, yet still holds a modern plot of its own. This book would be suitable for 1-3 grade classroom to look at a modern fairytales and practice finding similarities between the old and new.

I loved this book! This is one I read to 5 different groups of 1st graders and all the kids loved it! They laughed out loud and were very interested. It would be good to incorporate this book with Fairy Tales, Cinderella, or rats. Or maybe good around Halloween. ( )