Customer Reviews

Cinder Edna

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am a teenager and I read this book as part of an assignment in class. The book of Cinder Edna shows the plasticy-type "teenager," with a perfect, paper thin look, versus the homely, sensible girl with character. Cinderella marries the prince and has to sit through royal meetings and all of that, and Cinder Edna gets to marry the not-so-handsome prince and live happily. and have fun.
Any teen like me who ISNT one of the pretty or popular girls will get a boost of self-esteem when they read this book. I would reccomend this book to be in psychologist's offices and anorexic hospitals and the like ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.

I loved Cinder Edna. Your child will too.

Sure, there are plenty of retellings and variations on "Cinderella", but this one takes the cake. It compares the fates of TWO victims of cruel stepmothers and wicked stepsisters. Bringing the story up to date gives it a deliciously anachronistic feel, and the narrative pokes some sly and well-deserved fun at the original. The hilarious illustrations enhance the text perfectly. Don't let the fact that "Cinder Edna" is aimed at young children keep you away. This is one of the funniest and cleverest books to come along in a long time.

I am a teacher, and I bought this book for my 3rd grade class when we were doing a unit on Cinderella. This is a fabulous take on the classic story, updated wonderfully. But some of the ideas had to be explained to my children because it was a lot to take in. They didn't get some of the jokes. In the end, I think that most of them got the general idea. The moral is a great lesson for kids these days.

This is the story of two neighbors, both overworked sisters to mean, wicked, old step-sisters. Cinderella is the pretty one who sits in the cinders and daydreams after she finishes her chores. Next door Cinder Edna, the spunky one but not so pretty, sings while she works. She doesn't like sitting in cinders--gets her clothes sooty--so she takes on extra chores from the neighbors who pay her, enabling her to put a lovely dress on lay-away, her just-in-case dress.

One day the two princes announce a big ball and invite all the women of the kingdom to attend. The six wicked sisters ready themselves through the help of the abused step-sisters. Cinderella's fairy godmother comes along to poof the pretty lass ready. Cinderella's lack of imagination, lack of spunk, lack of proper attitude cannot see a way to the ball. GM has to turn a pumpkin, you know the rest.

Meanwhile, Cinder Edna gets her dress off lay-away, decides to wear her comfortable loafers to dance in, and takes the bus to the ball. There is no effort except her own good attitude. At the ball she finds the handsome prince too stuffed full of himself. Boring, she decides of him. Then she meets Rupert, the younger prince, head of waste recycling and keeper of orphaned kittens and master joke teller. She is known to tell a joke or two herself. They dance the night away.

All good stories must come to an end. The usual hunt for the right foot for the glass slipper, and a woman who can recite 17 tuna casserole recipes play a major role. There is a double wedding (surely this is not a spoiler!). But the big question is: Which couple lives happily ever after?

What a refreshing retelling of an old tale, especially for todays young girls. Being a big-footed mother of a big-footed young daughter, we both enjoyed this fun story. Cinder-Edna doesn't wine around about all that has been bestowed upon her. Instead, she makes the best of the situation and takes matters into her own hands. Spunky and spry, Edna ends up living happily ever after while beautiful Cinderalla lives with her beautiful husband in beautifully boring bliss!

"Now she's gone - the only girl I ever loved."
"Well, didn't you get her name?" asked Rupert impatiently (page 15).

In Cinder Edna, Ellen Jackson compares the classic Cinderella to a more light-hearted, realistic one, Cinder Edna. This Cinderella story with a twist is an enjoyable real world fairytale for children, especially little girls. The readers are able to relate with either Cinderella or Cinder Edna. While relating this enjoyable story, Jackson creates a dual tone of melancholy and optimism which are emphasized through the use of theme, contrasting diction, structure, and foils.

The tone of this children's story is illustrated through the theme of Cinder Edna. The theme portrayed is one of gaining happily ever after. Through the theme a lesson is taught about living happily ever after and the right attitude needed to achieve it. The theme is emphasized through the contrasting tones of the two main characters. Both Cinderella and Cinder Edna are forced to work for their wicked step mothers and step sisters. However, each girl takes on a different view of their situation. Cinderella evokes a tone of melancholy through her self pity and disparity towards her trial and chooses to dwell in pity, sitting among the cinders. On the other hand, Cinder Edna creates a tone of optimism through her self-sufficiency and independence toward her hard situation. She chooses to make the most out of her hard situation and to learn new skills. In the end, it is a cheerful outlook in hard times that leads to happily ever after.

Contrasting diction is also used to illustrate the tones of optimism and melancholy. Jackson uses "cruel" and "endless" to describe Cinderella's outlook on her situation. These words evoke a forlorn tone and create a feeling of pity toward Cinderella. Instead of trying to change her predicament, she sits and wishes for someone to come and change it for her. Contrastingly, Jackson describes Cinder Edna and her similar situation with cheerful diction. She uses "spunky" and "silly" to illustrate Cinder Edna's self-sufficiency and optimistic personality. Jackson also utilizes light-hearted rhymes to create Cinder Edna's happy tone. Cinder Edna figures out things for herself, and prepares ahead of time. Therefore, the varieties of diction help to create the contrasting tones of optimism and somberness.

The structure of Cinder Edna adds to the dual tones. While describing Cinderella's point of view Jackson uses long and loose sentences. She uses many descriptive words to add to Cinderella's distress. However, while discussing Cinder Edna, Jackson uses short sentences that add to Cinder Edna's "spunky" personality. This difference is noted through the description of both girls preparing for the ball. Cinderella is described as depending on her fairy godmother to figure out how she would get to the ball, through the utilization of various forlorn describing words. Therefore, a fairly large paragraph is formed to describe Cinderella's means of transportation instead of just a few lines. However, Cinder Edna's transportation to the ball is described with "Cinder Edna took the bus" (page 9). This short sentence gets to the point and emphasizes Cinder Edna's self-sufficiency and optimistic personality. Therefore, structure helps illustrate the dual tones of optimism and melancholy.

Jackson utilizes foils to create emphasis on the dual tones. Cinderella dwells on her troubles, sits in the cinders, and wishes for something to happen to change her predicament. After her wish comes true, she returns home moping and "sits forlornly among the cinders in the corner;" thus creating a somber tone (page 18). However, Cinder Edna makes the best of her predicament. She sings and whistles while she works and learns new skills. Cinder Edna works on the side to earn money and figures things out thing for her self. She buys her own dress and takes the bus to the ball. After returning, Edna continues on with her work, happy to have had the chance to go to a ball; thus illustrating a cheerful tone. The princes Randolph and Rupert are also foils of one another. After the ones they love disappear, Randolph blames others and pities himself. He did not have the common sense to ask Cinderella's name so he goes on a quest with her glass slipper to find her. However, Rupert prepares a plan of how he will find his true love. Rupert, having the common sense to ask the girl's name and about her, searches through the phone book and visits all of the Edna's in the village. He asks them questions pertaining to things he had learned about Cinder Edna at the ball. Therefore, through the use of foils the dual tone is created.

Throughout the story, Jackson illustrates a dual tone of cheerfulness and somberness. These contrasting tones are seen through the author's use of theme, contrasting diction, structure, and foils. Through this story the reader learns that we have to work for our own happily ever after. We need to have an optimistic attitude while overcoming our obstacles. We learn that with the right attitude anything is possible. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and recommend reading it to children.

I Loved this book, and so did my two pre-schoolers. It is a great retelling of Cinderella with a modern slant. Cinder Edna and Cinderella are neighbours. While Cinderella pines away and sleeps in the Cinders to keep warm, Edna finds it too dirty and so after she does the work for HER wicked step-mother and step sisters she goes out and cleans bird cages and mows lawns.

Cinder Edna is a spunky, fun character - while Cinderella can't get to the ball without her fairy god-mother's help Cinder Edna has organised a dress on Layaway and catches the bus and while there have been discussions I see on here about feminist overtones and environmental issues (all of which are here) the thing I liked most about this is that people really need to earn what they get. We end up rewarded for what we put in. So Cinder Edna and Cinderella really end up with exactly what they put in. I like the concept of consequences and planning.

Anyway, this book makes me laugh. some of the lines are priceless - and my kids adore the story so it works well on both adult and child level

The illustrations are quite neat - I think they much be pastel, and they have a wonderful 50's kitsch feel about them - the step-mother and step-sisters are extraodinary!

I would really recommend this book, it left me with the same feeling the PaperBag Princess did - A real spunky heroine who can look after herself.

There are some utterly classic lines in this book

I imagine that everyone has already summed up the plot more than adequately here. All I have to say is that this book is so necessary to combat the helpless and victimized mindset (male and female alike) of the Disneyesque fairytale/traditional Cinderella stories. My four year old and I adore this book and I can see that it will continue to inspire her for many more years. Enough text to interest and engage older children, and enough illustration/content/entertainment to entertain a younger child as well!

Give this one a try. Even boys can learn a great deal about the importance of being yourself, self-reliance, and what true love and compatibility really consist of.

The best of many Cinderella retellings we've read!

I bought this book for my 6 year old niece for Xmas 2005. It quickly became her favorite book. We must have re-read it over and over about 12 times during Christmas and we laughed every single time. All little girls are familiar with the story of Cinderella, but this one still keeps the original intact and adds a differnt perspective to the mix. I loved it and could not recommend the book enough. The book sends a positive message to little girls who can be so impressionable. Please buy it for all the little girls in your life!!

This is a great story for preteens & teens. I went to a college full of kids from snobby, rich families, and many of the women there were exactly like the Cinderella in this book: only there to snag a man so they wouldn't have to work, and completely clueless about how to survive on their own in the real world. It was pretty pitiful. But at the time, even though I knew that they were like this and I definitely wasn't (I was an intellectual, focused on my education/career goals, and fashion-challenged), I felt like such a loser because I wasn't accepted by those types of girls. It's natural to want to fit in with the popular crowd when you're young, and when you don't it's a horrible feeling.

So I like the morals of the story here, such as don't wait around for things to come your way but instead make them happen; be resourceful and make lemonade out of lemons; being beautiful isn't necessarily an advantage, etc, and it was pretty clever and funny to read. It also lampoons some of the unrealistic aspects of the fairy tale such as, why did the prince never ask her her name? DUH!! And why in the world would the prince declare he'd marry any girl who fit that shoe? He could have ended up with anyone! Yes, the prince definitely isn't the brightest bulb in the bunch. It also calls to mind some of the dumber things in other fairy tales, like why didn't Andersen's little mermaid just learn to WRITE so she could tell the prince who she was?!? Why did all 7 of the dwarves have to leave Snow White alone; couldn't at least one or two have stayed behind to guard her from the crazy woman who wanted to KILL her??!!

However, I couldn't really get behind it because I've always been a big fan of the fairy tale Cinderella and always felt she had some good moral lessons of her own to teach. She is giving and caring. She doesn't become resentful and bitter under bad circumstances. Instead of the 'bad guys' getting punished at the end like in most fairy tales, Cinderella forgives her family when they ask her to, and they are reconciled. I always thought that was beautiful--and reminiscent of Joseph in the bible. Forbearance, kindness, and goodness are virtues too. And the parts of the fairy tale which make her look ridiculously helpless if set in today's world (which this book is) make perfect sense in their original historical context.

Disney did inject some of Cinder Edna's characteristics into their version of Cinderella. In Disney's movie, Cinderella didn't actually sit in the cinders, she sang while she worked, had hobbies she enjoyed, and attempted to make her own dress for the ball. And just as important as those things, she had something Cinder Edna DIDN'T have: good friends who were there for her in tough times. Of course, if she were more like Cinder Edna, as she was running away from the ball she would have said: "By the way, my name is Ella and I live at such-and-such address!" Or even better, she would have just stayed and said, "Well, here I am, this is me without the fancy clothes. Still interested?"

The Cinderella in this book is snobby, vain, lazy, negative and self-centered (in fact, exactly like the original fairy tale stepsisters), and so is her prince. I felt bad that her character was soured for the sake of teaching a lesson, even though it's a good lesson. I would have liked it better if they'd made up a fictional character, like maybe "Cinder Emma," to play the role of the helpless but beautiful girl whose prince is rather daft.