Like a twist with your fairy tales? Give this delightful kid's book a try!

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	• Prince Cinders Babette Cole Putnam Juvenile, 1997 - 32 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

clever

clever and unexpected --- a brilliant book. I wish there were more children's books like this. I like htis author

Brothers can be mean and wicked, too!

There are two views I could use in reviewing "Prince Cinders," a modern version of Cinderella. The reader shall choose.

View 1: The politically correct version of gender role reversal. Instead of a girl treated wickedly, the role is inhabited by a boy, or young man, who is made to clean up after his three older brothers. When he wants to go to the dance, his fairy, a young woman who doesn't have the formula to the spells down just yet, sends the young prince as a big, hairy ape. When he changes back into himself, the young princess thinks he has saved her from the big hairy ape. When he runs off, his jeans fall off and become the "glass slipper" of this story. No one can fit into them except this young prince. Marriage, blah, blah.

View 2: A far different politically correct version. Take the same scenario above, but let's add some new factors. The three wicked brothers are big and hairy; the young prince is skinny and wimpy. He is discriminated against because he is not macho. The princess finds the big hairy monkey very frightening because, like the young prince, she, too, is quite thin. She recognizes her soul mate after he turns back into the young skinny, wimpy prince. Marriage, happy ending, blah, blah.

Now, reader, which do you prefer: PC with gender role reversal, or PC with societal opinion of what constitutes male handsomeness? Please vote in the comment section. We'll send the results to Babette Cole, the author, and to Putnam & Gossett, her publisher, and perhaps to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. If anyone can stop the senseless discrimination against thin folks, it is our Jeff!

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Great for a range of age groups

This is a great book for challenging gender stereotypes. I used it in teaching 10th grade English students (so all around 15 or 16yo) about stereotypes (as part of a unit on 'Cinderella transformations' in which we also watched the film 'Ever After') and they loved it. My 4yo son who spends most of his life surrounded by older girls also loves this book. It is a great companion to Princess Smartypants (which my 8yo daughter loves).

Like a twist with your fairy tales? Give this delightful kid's book a try!

"Prince Cinders" rewrites the classic fairy tale "Cinderella" into a hilarious laugh riot that doesn't cater to gender roles at all!

Babette Cole brings Prince Cinders to life -- a gentle but scrawny young man who has 3 big, hairy brothers who are always whisking their princess girlfriends away for a night of partying at Palace Disco while poor Prince Cinders is left at home to clean up their mess. All Prince Cinders wants is to be big and hairy like his brothers, until one day Prince Cinders meets a slightly inept fairy who falls down his chimney and grants his wish (even if it didn't turn out quite how he pictured it).

This children's picture book is short and sweet, and very funny to kids most ages (although the book is officially geared towards children 4-8 years old). It's sort of a hip new look at the Cinderella story, with almost all the gender roles reversed. I think it's a positive and simple step towards addressing the issue of stereotypical gender roles in our society with children. It's a picture book, and a fun story, therefore it will be easily relateable to them, and it's a simple way to show them that girls don't always have to be the ones sitting at home waiting for their fairy godmother to show up! In this book, it's Prince Cinders who is hoping to overcome his 3 hairy brothers, instead of Cinderella wishing for rescue from her 2 ugly stepsisters (and 1 wicked stepmother). Prince Cinders is trying to win the heart of a Princess, instead of Cinderella hoping to win the heart of a handsome Prince. And of course, the Princess runs around the kingdom trying to find the man who fits the pair of trousers she finds (istead of a Prince searching for the maiden who fits the tiny glass slipper).

It's all in good fun, and I think everyone, young and old, can enjoy this easy read.

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Funny!

This is a wonderfully funny "fractured fairy tale" retelling of Cinderella.Very fractured, as the fairy can't get anything right.

I do have trouble rhyming "ta" and "car" in one of the spells - in my dialect, they don't rhyme - but I get around that by saying "tar" instead.

Not my favorite artwork, though.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

"Cole's unique brand of wacky humor is given free rein in this merry romp . . ."--Publishers Weekly. "Kids, especially those six, seven, and eight, will think this is wildly funny; some adults may think so, too."--Booklist. Full-color illustrations.

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