Cinderella's Dress [Hardcover]

Nancy Willard (Author), Jane Dyer (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003 | Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up | Series: Cinderella

Magic happens when Newbery Medalist Nancy Willard and best-selling illustrator Jane Dyer combine talents in an imaginative retelling of this best-loved fairy tale, focusing on the ever-popular dress.

With Nancy Willard's characteristic verbal wit and Jane Dyer's beautiful, detailed paintings, this charming book will be irresistible to young girls who know the Cinderella story and love it. In this version, two magpies who live outside Cinderella's window make her a magnificent dress from bits of shiny paper they've collected. The jealous stepsisters rip it apart, and Cinderella is left in rags--until thanks to her friends the magpies she finds a magic ring belonging to her late mother. Her fairy godmother appears, and a new dress, a coach made of a pumpkin, and happy endings follow.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-It's all about the dress, in this retelling of the familiar tale. Who will actually make it, how will it be created, and what kind of gown will it be? Prior to the entrance of Cinderella's fairy godmother, two magpies observe the girl's harsh treatment from the tree outside her family's home and vow to make her their adopted daughter. Their talents include creating beautiful things from their well-stocked nest of treasures, everything from shiny paper scraps to squares of pretty lace. The birds also possess one cherished prize, a gold ring, which as it turns out was "hammered from fairy gold" and given to Cinderella by her mother before her death. When the ball invitation arrives, the birds secretly craft an exquisite gown for her, but her ill-favored stepsisters handle it until it rips to shreds. The magpies then learn that Cinderella is the owner of their treasured ring and return it in time for her to make a wish and be rewarded by her fairy godmother. Willard has focused on a detail of the traditional story and expanded it into a yarn of its own. The descriptive rhyming text is uneven in places but reflective of the enchanting mood. Muted watercolors bring out the whimsy and fanciful spirit of the story. Overall, however, both the text and the art of this unconventional spin on the tale seem to get bogged down in the window dressing and lack the tension or emotional resonance of a memorable offering.
Rita Soltan, Oakland University, Rochester, MI
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Blue Sky Press (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590569279
• ISBN-13: 978-0590569279
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Cinderella's Dress, October 5, 2006

By 

Karyn W "blckwidow8" (Kansas City, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cinderella's Dress (Hardcover)

The best thing about this book are the illustrations. They are absolutely gorgeous with so much attention to detail and creating some beautiful scenes. The story is an interesting twist on the traditional Cinderella story that is well told with a story that is easy to follow and that many children will enjoy in the telling, especially with the illustrations to further bring the story to life. The only bad part is that it tries to rhyme throughout and sometimes some of the rhymes don't work as well as others.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars rhymes not worth a dime, February 20, 2008

By 

Jill (boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cinderella's Dress (Hardcover)

While the art is quite nice, I can't get over the indecision of the approach to the text. Some pages rhyme, others don't. Two lines will rhyme, then five won't, then four will...

Drives me up a wall and makes this a difficult book to read aloud.

Didn't this writer have an editor? Or just some sense?

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute rubbish., August 16, 2010

By 

Deborah Andrews (Stranski) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cinderella's Dress (Hardcover)

I checked this book out of the library, because my daughter loves anything about princesses, Cinderella, etc. It's the best way to decide whether to buy a book, as I have bought books before and wasted cash on something that was stupid, badly written, etc.

ANYWAY, this book is DREADFUL. The story could have been interesting (I realize it is a children's book), but what child wants to hear "the mother was dead" at bedtime, or "I will beat you black and blue if you don't tie my shoe" (A RARE rhyming occurance FYI)? Right? Then the lack of cohesion in text and prose. Seriously, I was making up rhymes at the end of lines to make the story flow better (which got a LOT of laughs I must say). I'm not saying that one NEEDS rhymes to read a story, just decide whether you will rhyme or not, don't go back and forth or try and rhyme every third line!

And the ending was poor. The dress was done. Cinderella went to the ball. The end. HUH? Sorry, but my daughter was disappointed because it was missing half of the story.

My final thought, that made my daughter laugh:

And now this book is finally through

I do declare that it's a pile of poo.