By the time the story ends, they are hiding with their mother in the forest because Grandmother Crocodile Of course, her stepsisters want equally beautiful clothes, but, lacking Damura's respect for nature, they spank and insult the baby crocodile. ''Creatures of the wild, help me,'' she calls, and Grandmother Crocodile, whose baby she tenderly rocks, brings her a silver sarong To return without it, relies upon the parting advice of her mother. Sent to the river to wash the family's clothes, Damura loses her threadbare sarong and, afraid Spice Islands, beautifully enhanced by Ruffins's watercolors, Sierra's tropical version shares motifs not only with Cinderella but with other fairy tales.Īfter the death of her mother, Damura invites misery by asking her father to marry a neighbor woman who has bribed her with the gift of a beautiful doll. Originally collected in 1900 by a missionary to the The bite of Grimm's Cinderella is appealingly anthropomorphized in ''The Gift of the Crocodile: A Cinderella Story,'' written by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Reynold Ruffins. Catrow's moldy princess bears a weird resemblance to a Walter Keane waif,Īnd the text features lines like ''Your gleaming skull and burnished bones / Your teeth like polished kidney stones.'' ''Cinderella Skeleton'' is, thankfully, an unparalleled experience. Godmother Cinderella takes a hearse instead of a carriage to the ball and, at morning's light, she leaves behind not her shoe but a foot. A Halloween entry told in rhyme, it makes the obligatory substitutions. San Souci and illustrated by David Catrow. On a less bestial but far creepier note is ''Cinderella Skeleton,'' written by Robert D. Alas for those pantingĪfter four rather than two glass slippers, these dogs walk, and waltz, on their hind legs only. ''Cinderella the Dog and Her Little Glass Slipper,'' written and illustrated by Diane Goode, is also a vehicle for illustrations, a simplified rendition of Perrault with humans in dog form. To satisfy the most demanding consumer of tutus, bows and patent leather. This cheats us out of the gruesome satisfactions offered by the Brothers Grimm - bigįeet butchered to fit a golden slipper, eyes pecked out by pigeons as a reward for falsehood - but this is, after all, a picture book, and Craft's paintings of a fantastical 17th-century France are opulent enough Here, Christian influence redeems the evil stepsisters, who prostrate themselves before the virtuous heroine and are forgiven. Craft, adapts its text from English versions by Arthur Rackham and Andrew Lang, both inspired by Charles Perrault's comparatively treacly telling of the ''Cinderella,'' written and illustrated by the gifted and prolific K. Perhaps this is why a half-dozen versions are published in a single season. Even among the fairy tales we hold most dear, ''Cinderella''
An ending whose happiness is incidental to its wallop of poetic justice. Selfish, lazy stepsisters who are, of course, ugly. A daughter whose beauty proceeds from virtue. San Souci, with illustrations by Sergio Martinez. Written by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Reynold Ruffins.Ī Cinderella Tale From the Mexican TraditionĪdapted by Jewell Reinhart Coburn and illustrated by Connie McLennan. Silver Whistle/Harcourt, $16 ages 5 to 9.
By KATHRYN HARRISONĬINDERELLA THE DOG AND HER LITTLE GLASS SLIPPERīlue Sky/Scholastic, $15.95 ages 5 to 9. The evil stepsisters, the fairy godmother, the handsome prince - yes, it's 'Cinderella,' retold in six new books.