Cinderella Smith: The Super Secret Mystery

Cinderella Smith

by Stephanie Barden, Diane Goode (Illustrations)

Stephanie Barden has created a great role model for tweens. Cinderella Smith is confident, smart, and very real. Fans of Junie B. Jones and Clementine will love watching Cinderella conquer the problems of third-grade life, and parents will appreciate the vocabulary-enhancing words Stephanie Barden sprinkles through the story.
 
In The Super-Secret Mystery , third in the Cinderella Smith chapter-book series, Cinderella is excited to write a report on an endangered species. She can’t wait to investigate this important environmental issue. But every book she needs to do her research has disappeared from the library! That won’t stop Cinderella. She won’t be stopped by the mean-girl bullies and will follow every clue until she solves the mystery of the missing books.
 
Illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Diane Goode add to the appeal of Cinderella’s story.

Genres: Mystery, Friendship

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 23, 2013

About the author

In between tripping over abandoned shoes, chasing after escaped pets and searching for lost belongings, Stephanie Barden wrote Cinderella Smith, her first book. HarperCollins will publish Cinderella Smith and the More the Merrier in spring of 2012. A third Cinderella Smith book, as yet untitled, will come out in 2013. When she's not writing, Stephanie teaches classes at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle where she lives with her husband, Tom, son, Joe, and 80-pound lap dog, Otis.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book to Madeleine after dance class, so maybe around 5:30. We read the first two together, and I quite like the series, and I knew she'd like this book. Well, when i went to check on her over an hour after we'd tucked them in (9:30?) I found her on the last two pages of the book. At which point I gave her permission to finish, and admonished her to go straight to sleep afterwards.
There is so much in there- yay, Stephanie Barden for writing another winner, yay for reading, yay for having a kid who does something we both love to do (stay up way to late reading). Boo... having a kid who was cranky today because she was too tired.
In other news, if you have a kid of a certain age, i think these books are winners.

(Addendum: So, now i've finished it. The kid reads faster than i do, what can i say? Anyway, from a literary standpoint, i felt like this was a little weaker than the first two because the ended was more poorly resolved. Perhaps Barden is hunting for that contract extension and leaving obvious room for 4-6, but it felt like a little bit more could have been done to tie up some issues.
In other news, in this book they visit the zoo, which is OUR ZOO, obviously, and i found it somewhat jarring that the paths they followed made no sense. Ok ok, you can get to the gorillas first if you come in through the south entrance instead of the more common north, but then why no mention of Africa? But the rain forest building i can't resolve - You don't see the toucans before the marmosets, at least not legally; the building is marked with one entrance and one exit so they shouldn't have reversed our normal route.
But, all that aside, Madeleine was able to use the term 'dribbly-spit' appropriately while we were at the zoo on Wednesday, so that was sweet.)

[Jill CD · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really cute book gauged for 2-4th graders. It reminded me a bit of Junie B Jones. I read this without reading prior books in the series and understood the plot. A fun recommendation to the fan club of Junie, Amber Brown, and Clementine.

[Kathleen Vincenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocked and amazed

Shocked and amazed how I continue to enjoy Cinderella adventures and her happy, helpful self. If I had only enjoyed school that much.

[aem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super sweet story

[Katelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good quick read :)

[Luciana M. Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't actually a mystery it was just like something that she couldn't find

[maryumqofb · Rating 5 out of 5]

just a girl doing a project AND A MYSTERY. very underrated series. new vocab: cahoots

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first two books in the Cinderella Smith series a couple of years ago, and I absolutely loved them. Recently, I found out that there was a third book in the series, Super Secret Mystery, and was excited to get my hands on it. I'm so glad I was able to read it. I loved it just as much as the first two books in the series, if not more so.

I was so excited to return to Cinderella Smith's chaotic, yet hilarious world. The third book, Super Secret Mystery, had a lot more humor than I remembered the other two books in the series. It had me laughing out loud when I was reading it at one in the morning. There was a lot of snarkiness in it. A few times I almost woke my husband up from laughing so hard. It reminded me of when I was a child, and used to get a lot of entertainment out of the Junie B. Jones series.

I also thought that the illustrations in Super Secret Mystery were absolutely adorable. All of them were cute, and really added something to the story line. They made the reader feel like they are in the story with Cinderella, experiencing doing the report, and all of the shenanigans that go along with it, right beside her.

I love the Cinderella Smith series so much, and Super Secret Mystery was no exception. I hope that the Stephanie Barden, the author of the series, continues to write books about Cinderella Smith. I'm not sure that she will though because the last time a book was released in this series was 2013. I recommend this series to younger kids everywhere, and adults that want a laugh while reading to their children.

[Mymcbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review: Who is Cinderella Smith? She is your modern day Cinderella. A third grade student who is prone to losing her shoes. When the class is assigned a research project on animals, Cinderella is excited as she would like to study ocelots but notice that the books she needed for the research has gone missing from the library. Did the mean bullies take the books? She will just have to investigate and follow every clue until she solves the mystery of the missing books.

If you are a fan of Junie B. Jones or Nancy Drew you will love reading Cinderella Smith.

Illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Diane Goode help to bring the story to life adding an appeal to the Cinderella’s story.

FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book HarperCollins Publishing in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion in any way.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are you a parent looking for an adorable book to gift your child for the holidays? Are you someone who is coming up short on their reading challenge goal and in desperate need of a quick filler read? Then you have come to the correct review, as Cinderella Smith: The Super Secret Mystery by Stephanie Barden illustrated by Diane Goode is a very short, very adorable book aimed at elementary school children. Also? Cinderella Smith is quite feisty, y’all.
Read the rest of my review here
Review will be posted November 25, 2013.

[Mel Raschke]

Excellent library story. Cinderella's third story in the series. Cinderella needs to visit the library so she can work on her animal report. The report is not getting done by the fact that someone has taken every book she needs from the school library. Mean girls Rosemary T. and Rosemary W. are the prime suspects, but Cinderella (generous and good as her namesake) finds a workaround using the public library.

[Jaymie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a cute story, and a great series. A class project about endangered animals anchors the story about secrets and mysteries. As a classroom read aloud, this could be a great discussion-starter about the environment and/or endangered animals, or about some of the social situations in the story.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute mystery. Cinderella frequently loses her shoes! She makes up new words and tries to get them into the dictionary. She is smart and normal and has a good home life - I loved it!

3-5

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Cinderella Smith series, and it is a wonderful read for all kids! Loved the book! As far as kids' chapter books, this one gets my highest rating!