Cinderella: Les Petits Fairytales

Les Petits Fairytales

by Trixie Belle, Melissa Caruso-Scott, Oliver Lake (Illustrator)

With a single word and an accompanying illustration on each spread, this classic fairytale can be enjoyed by youngest readers.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fairy Tales, Cinderella

26 pages, Board Book

First published October 30, 2012

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to traditional tales for the youngest listeners. Clearly tells the Cinderella story in just 18 words.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like its companion, Snow White, each page uses one or two words to catch the essence of the event. This allows the reader to use their own words to interpret the story. Almost seems like a concept book!

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Violet enjoyed this book until it got to the ugly step sister there were a bit scary. She was focusing on the faces. This wasn’t my favourite type of children’s book, I prefer the ones that have a bit of story not just one word.

[Cara Byrne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like other board book adaptations of fairy tales or classic texts, this book captured my four-year-old's attention more than my one-year-old's. She loved the glittery tiara on the cover (and the mice carrying the pumpkin), though the more primary audience (the infant) was not intrigued.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute art and simple, one-word pages make these great primers for language and fairy tales for young readers.

[Kelly Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Not my favorite, even though it's about Cinderella.

[Kathryn (Dragon Bite Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a supremely succinct retelling of the tale of Cinderella. Each of the main elements is captured in a single word or phrase, "Girl. Chores. Mean stepsisters. Fairy godmother," being the text of the first few pages. Each idea is simply but completely and colorfully illustrated. Unlike the Favorite Words books attributed to Eric Carle, Belle, Caruso-Scott, and Lake manage to tell a complete story. Granted, some of this story I may have subconsciously filled in myself. The subject matter well lends itself to such a succinct retelling as it is a tale that children can grow into (which I know is the idea behind the Favorite Words books, but with Cinderella there is so much more growth to be had, not from nouns and matching pictures to a board book with a simple story, but phrases and matching illustrations to a modern English picture book, to an illustrated picture book of the original story with a cleaner ending, to a modern English short story, to the original short story with the original ending, to a modern retelling in novel format, to a comparison of Cinderella tale types from around the world).

Belle et al.'s book is a more standard board book size as compared to the very little size of Carle's Favorite Words books, giving the illustrator (Oliver Lake) more room with illustration. Rather than being a complementary illustration of a noun as are Carle's, the form leaves room for a complete picture with subject and background and secondary characters or plot points.

I would be interested in parents' reviews of the book. To me, Belle et al.'s book would seem to invite its own retelling by a child in time, for which I'd laud it. However, to me, the book seems to suffer the same flaw as the Favorite Words books: They cannot really be read aloud--or would be dull and extremely short to read aloud. These are books to give to young readers or would-be readers, essentially a set of flashcards in board book form attempting to tell a tale because of their arrangement.

[Drew Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

There once lived this blonde girl who for some reason had to do all the chores while her blue-skinned "Mean Stepsisters" stood there and had their shoes polished. Then a Fairy Godmother came along and the girl had a fancy gown and shoes apparently made out of Jell-O and went to a ball and met a prince. Then after some setbacks they were wed by a red bird of some kind.

This one was a little better than the Snow White one, but it has most of the same problems. The art is okay, relying heavily on sparkles (on the cover at least) and the text seems odd at times, but at least they're words that little ones might actually understand. Mostly I'm wondering why and how in the world it takes two authors to put together a series of maybe a dozen and a half words (and why and how one of them is named Trixie).

[Vivian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cute illustrations are not enough to compensate for the lame text in these board book offerings of complex tales for the toddler set. One word? Really? I get it that the sharing adult is supposed to use the word as a prompt and fill in the details. But most won't. These certainly did not rate a "shout out" at a children's books conference I attended last July.

Give your toddler something more appropriate for their developing curiosity about the world around them.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better then the Beauty and the Beast in this series but still lacking somehow. Did like the fact that they pull some from the actual French fairytale since this series is called Les Petits Fairytales. Still no fairytale contains a glass slipper. Disney is NOT source material. If you are going to rewrite a myth, or legend, or fairytale please go back to the ORIGINAL. Still like the one word pages. That is great for antsy little kids.

[Inshiya Farhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

ones a apon a time there lived a girl who loves to be a prices .one night she was sleeping as she was she heard a nosie from out side the house.she was so scared.but when she whent out side she saw a beautful land in world.but when she work up it was just a dream.she laught at her self that she had been driming.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very simple over view of the Cinderella story small enough for early readers to enjoy. With only one or two words per page, this book does an excellent job portraying the story. I really liked the colorful illustrations. I would definitely recommend this book for teachers/parents/families to enjoy with their young readers.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simple beautiful board book version of Cinderella. The artwork does a wonderful job of telling the story since each page highlights only one word. The cover is gorgeous and glittery and sure to get the little ones attention.

[Precious Hill]

This book is a picture book with one word on each page. This book will be good for beginning readers. I beleive it will help a child focus on a story by showing pictures and one word detailing the main event on each page.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Distills Cinderella down to the barest elements with only one or two words per glittery page. It was better than I feared.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rendition of Cinderella with one to two words per page and super cute illustrations that tell the story, this is perfect for toddlers.

[Jocelin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are really cute but, this is not as great a series as the one from Jennifer Adams. It's a little over simplified for me. This is definitely a book for babies.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, and the illustrations tell the story a bit better than in the other books.

[Drucilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I liked some of the spreads.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute board book

[Slaa!!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly having the busiest of days at work

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great intro to Cinderella for babies.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One or two words per page. Glitter front. simple pictures. tells the whole story!

[Tina Cerami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cinderella is such a popular tale that is familiar all over the world. This version of the story by Les Petits Fairytales is an early introduction to the story for children ages 1-3. This board book contains pictures with very few words of the story, simplifying it for kids that are young and are just being introduced to reading. For example, in one page of the book there is a picture of the fairy godmother pointing her wand to Cinderella and the word gown is written. This is for children to easily comprehend the fact that Cinderella is being transformed into a real life princess. I understand that Les Petits has a collection of these princess stories such as Arielle, Belle, and Snow White. The authors Trixie Belle, Melissa Caruso-Scott and illustrator Oliver Lake do an excellent job of exposing introductory readers to these iconic stories!