Smoky Mountain Rose: An Appalachian Cinderella - Softcover

I reckon ye heard o' Cinderella, but lemme tell you a story 'bout a sweet li'l thing named Rose

When a rich feller across the creek decides to throw a fancy party to find himself a wife, Rose's stepsisters, Annie and Liza Jane, start dreamin' about becoming his bride. Right and left, they're orderin' Rose around -- not even thinkin' that Rose might like to go to the party herself. And on the night of the shindig, Rose finds herself left behind -- until one of the hogs comes up to the fence and starts talkin' to her. As it turns out, that hog just happens to know a little bit o' magic....

Based on Charles Perrault's classic version, this lively adaptation of the Cinderella story is a joy to read again and again.

Kindergarten-Grade 4. Schroeder has taken the classic Perrault fairy tale and recast it "smack in the heart o' the Smoky Mountains." He begins his retelling with the directive, "Now lis'en," and continues to relate the familiar events in lilting mountain dialect with plenty of homespun humor. Seb, the love interest here, is a "real rich feller?made his fortune in sowbellies and grits." Rose's transformation takes place through intervention of a kindhearted, articulate hog. The tale concludes, "To this day, Rose and Seb are still livin' there, and folks reckon they're 'bout the happiest twosome in all o' Tarbelly Creek," giving the story a contemporary bent. Everyone knows what's going to happen, but getting there is half the fun. Sneed's slick, stylized watercolors seem at first to be out of sync with the down-home narrative, but it quickly becomes clear that the disparate union is a successful one. The paintings are realistically rendered but slightly distorted?figures are elongated and angular, features exaggerated, and perspectives askew. People are clad in fashions of the 1940s and the lush Appalachian landscape is always in evidence. The fanciful, but decidedly quirky artwork effectively informs readers, in case they didn't already know it, that there's magic in them thar hills. An appealing all-American addition to the canon of "Cinderella" variants.?Luann Toth, School Library Journal
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.