Amazon.com Review
If there's one thing the traditional fairy-tale Cinderella is lacking, it's some rip-snortin', gravel-in-the-gizzard gumption. And until her Wild West counterpart, Cindy Ellen, meets her own fairy godmother, she too is sorely deficient in the grit and guts department, even if she is a durn good cowgirl. Cindy Ellen's meaner-than-a-rattlesnake stepmother bullies her into doing all the dirty work on the ranch and forbids her to attend the biggest event of the season, a rodeo and square dance. Enter her spur-jangling, gun-firing, no-nonsense fairy godmother: "Magic is plumb worthless without gumption.... Stop that tomfool blubbering, and let's get busy." And just like that, Cindy is outfitted in the "finest riding clothes west of the East," including a pair of diamond-studded spurs. You can guess the rest. It involves six cactus mice transformed into six dappled horses, a lost diamond spur, and a rodeo champion by the name of Joe Prince.
Simply put, Cindy Ellen is a riot. Joined with Jane Manning's over-the-top illustrations, this sidesplitting retelling of a classic will keep young buckaroos in stitches. Susan Lowell has enchanted readers with several earlier Wild West remakes, including The Bootmaker and the Elves and The Three Little Javelinas. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
Lowell (The Three Little Javelinas) takes a fairy-tale heroine away from the hearth and gives her a home on the rangeAand teaches readers a thing or two about moxie. Freckle-faced Cindy Ellen, a rancher's daughter, mends fences and mucks out the corral, but her new stepmother (who is "meaner than a rattlesnake") and two nasty stepsisters do not a lick of work. Cindy isn't allowed to attend a rich neighbor's two-day rodeo and square-dance extravaganzaAthat is, until her fairy godmother wields her magical golden six-gun, yelling, "Hit the trail, honey! Remember, there ain't no horse that can't be rode and there ain't no man that can't be throwed!" Lowell's savory slang adds punch to this tale, which stresses the fairy godmother's message that "magic is plumb worthless without gumption." Manning (The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches) enhances this rawhide-and-lace fantasy in illustrations lush with cactus-flower colors and pale maize gold. Cindy's strawberry-blond tresses float in the desert breeze; her diamond spurs (which fit only her tiny boots) twinkle as she tames a wild horse and then dances the grand sashay with cowboy Joe Prince. An endnote speaks to the role of cowgirls in the West and the modern rodeo. Ages 4-8. (May)
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