Interstellar Cinderella
Deborah Underwood and Meg Hunt
Chronicle Books
This Cinderella with a cosmic twist is irresistible. I’m a real fan of fairy tale spin offs and certainly was not disappointed by this one. The heroine is cast as a strong, brainy, mechanically minded female who studies rocket ship repair by night, so determined is she to follow her dreams and become an engineer. And so she does. But first, with a bit of help from her fairy godrobot in fixing her own craft,

she has to use her trusty socket wrench to perform a skilled overhaul of the prince’s spacecraft that has malfunctioned.
Of course said prince, having discovered they have such a lot in common, does fall in love with his saviour, seeks her out and proposes but then it wouldn’t be Cinderella if he didn’t. And being an independent young miss, this Cinderella when she does come face to face with her suitor, having chased after him to reclaim her lost wrench, turns down his offer of marriage but agrees to something much more appealing …

It’s told in jaunty verse that reads aloud beautifully (love the sonic wordplays) and illustrated with appropriate verve and vigour by Meg Hunt whose choice of colour palette is superb, as is her attention to detail. And those endpapers are genius. The characterization too is terrific – that robot mouse, Murgatroyd is just brilliant and demonstrated thus: ‘Cinderella struggled but the space rope held her tight, till Murgatroyd’s robotic teeth cut through it with one bite.’

Assuredly a Cinderella of the future; but very much one of the present too – if the positive reactions of my audiences of 5s to 9s are anything to go by.

Cinderella’s Sister and the Big Bad Wolf
Lorraine Carey and Migy Blanco
Nosy Crow
Cinderella has a third sister, Gertie in this twisted fairy tale and it’s she who does all the chores not Cinderella (a thoroughly lazy sort who just looks on and lets her kind sis slave away while she does nothing more than paint her nails.) Not that all this drudgery seems to spoil Gertie from whom niceness shines forth at all times. Consequently the rest of the Ugly family members keep her out of sight. So, when an invitation inviting them all to a Grand Ball arrives, young Gertie begs to be allowed to attend.

Mrs Ugly reluctantly agrees and Gertie is duly dispatched to the Wicked Queen to receive a crash course in nastiness.
Her arrival coincides with the Wicked Queen’s attempted poisoning of Snow White with an apple, a plan young Gertie duly foils, infuriating her supposed instructor who sends her back home forthwith to an equally furious mother who agrees to give Gertie another chance at being bad Ugly sister. This time she is sent to the Worst Witch of all and again she foils a murderous plan

and is once more returned whence she came. However, she’s given one last chance to redeem herself and off she goes to the ‘meanest and nastiest baddie of all’ … .

Again though, Gertie cannot stop herself mid-lesson and she scuppers the Wolf’s dastardly doings too. Seemingly, she’s about to become his dinner instead however, till she mentions the Ball that is. And from then on, things take a decided turn for the better – for the Wolf and Gertie that is: but not entirely for Cinderella although she does get to go to the ball, thanks to a timely wave of a Fairy Godmother’s wand. A wonderful time is had by all and a wedding occurs soon after. And the fate of Mrs Ugly and the other two Ugly sisters? Well, nobody really knows exactly why they disappeared from the scene but …

A wonderful time too, was had by all when I shared this one with various groups of under sevens who relished the mixing of several tales and particularly appreciated Gertie’s thwarting of all the wicked plans and Cinderella’s unexpected transformation.

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