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non mangiate Cenerentola!

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A thoroughly subversive and hilarious twist on favourite fairy-tale characters, brilliantly read by Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale with lots of silly sound effects and music. Unabridged

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2005

5 people are currently reading
75 people want to read

About the author

Francesca Simon

386 books204 followers
Francesca Simon grew up in California and attended both Yale and Oxford Universities, where she specialised in Medieval Studies. How this prepared her to write children’s books she cannot imagine, but it did give her a thorough grounding in alliteration.

She then threw away a lucrative career as a medievalist and worked as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue (US). After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time. One of the UK’s best-selling children’s writers, Francesca has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular HORRID HENRY series, which has now sold over twelve million copies.

Francesca won the Children’s Book of the Year in 2008 at the British Book Awards for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. HORRID HENRY is published in 24 countries and is also an animated CITV series. She lives in London with her husband, son, and Tibetan Spaniel, Shanti.

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5 stars
38 (26%)
4 stars
40 (27%)
3 stars
41 (28%)
2 stars
18 (12%)
1 star
6 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for AlenGarou.
1,729 reviews134 followers
Read
September 1, 2018
Uno dei primi libri che ho letto nel corso della mia noiosa quanto schizofrenica vita XD
Non so perché non l'ho inserito prima in lista, bah. Anyway, la mia copia del 1998 è ancora intera... o quasi. Dentro avevo iniziato a colorarci, va beh...
Genio.
Profile Image for Bianca Pastore.
4 reviews
November 3, 2025
Se cercate un libro coinvolgente da leggere ad un gruppo di bambini questo è il libro giusto per voi! Basta solo un po’ di teatralità nel leggerlo e il gioco è fatto
Profile Image for Jason.
1,321 reviews139 followers
February 6, 2017
My eldest daughter raved about a number of times so my youngest and me decided to give it a go. Frankly it was disappointing, from a kids point of view it is fun, you got some songs, well known characters and illustrations. For an adult though the illustrations are poor, a group of adults in the junior class makes little sense, the dialogue was annoying so much so that I found myself wanting to give the characters a slap. The Queen, Snow White's stepmum, couldn't read or do basic maths.

Too much of this book is stupid and we didn't enjoy it, back to Roald Dahl methinks.
Profile Image for Arwa.
107 reviews3 followers
September 9, 2016
2.5/5 maybe I'll read it to my nephews someday.
Profile Image for Saee :).
236 reviews52 followers
October 7, 2024
Snails and worms for lunch and 'how to roast child' classes.
Fave charecter was Bad Fairy for sure!
Loved it!
Casual canabalism threw me off a bit.
But fox and trolls wanting to eat kids doesn't count as canabalism I supose.
I love how the end of this book is beginning of each charecter's fairytale.
The plan to beat up 'bad class' was half cooked.
And I didn't get the 'Mother Goose' reference.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Rosemary.
343 reviews4 followers
January 30, 2018
Thought overall cute and enjoyable. The ending was very abrupt, I "got it" but felt like you were left on a page incomplete. Maybe saying "And they lived happily ever after" is done for a reason? Anything?
Profile Image for Maya.
132 reviews1 follower
April 24, 2022
L' avevo letto da piccola. Banale, per bambini molto piccoli
12 reviews2 followers
June 1, 2014
Don't cook Cinderella is a school story with a twist. Miss Good Fairy is teaching Hansel, Gretal, Cinderalla, Snow White and many more to be good fairy tale characters and to read and write. while, on the other hand Miss Bad fairy is teaching Wicked Witch, Big Bad Wolf, Goblin, Ogre and many more to be the baddest and most evilest baddies that they can be. The bad class are plotting to trouble the good class but the baddies get a shock when the good class outsmart them.

The book is funny and clever. It breaks the mould of a regular fairy tale which has children laughing their heads off.
Profile Image for Carol.
67 reviews1 follower
December 25, 2010
What would happen if Snow White, the Queen, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, three Little Pigs, and other children's stories characters live at the same time? They were classmates in the story Don't Cook Cinderalla, learning how to write, how to count, eat snakes and snails, play games and be a witch.

I don't read the Horrid Henry series, but I pretty like this book, with illustration by Tony Ross. The story is even more hilarious than Snow White and the Seven aliens. A good read for parents and children.
Profile Image for Sina & Ilona Glimmerfee.
1,057 reviews118 followers
April 17, 2017
In der einen Klasse lernen die guten Märchengestalten und in der anderen die bösen. Die drei kleinen Schweinchen, Cinderella & Co. müssen vorsichtig sein, denn der Troll, der böse Wolf und ihre Lehrerin, die böse Fee planen einen Überfall, bei dem die Guten im Kochtopf landen sollen.
Mit diesem Buch wollte ich meine Englischkenntnisse aufpolieren, aber ideal ist das Buch für den Einstieg nicht. Es gibt sehr viele Vokabeln, für z.B. schreien, flüstern, stoßen u.ä.., die sich in immer anderen Varianten wiederholen. Die Illustrationen sind witzig gestaltet.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

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