Cinderella

by Margaret Mayo, Selina Young, Philip Norman (Illustrator)

nan

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2002

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

For the Romance novelist see: Margaret Mayo

Margaret Mary Cumming was born 10 May 1935 in London, England, the daughter of William John and Anna (Macleod) Cumming. On 28 July 1958, she married Peter Robin Mayo, a university lectured, and they had three children: Roderick, Katrina and Andrew.

Margaret Mayo was a children's literature and folktales writer. A former teacher, she uses her wide-ranging experience with children in her writing. She lives in Brighton.

Reviews

[Francesca Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has always been my favourite fairy tale. The story uses simplistic language and is short. The book includes colourful illustrations on each page alongside the story. The font is large and clear for children to read. This book is great for early readers for the introduction of fairy tales. Cinderella is fed up of being bossed around doing household jobs for her ugly stepsisters. One day they all receive an invitation to the ball but Cinderella knows she won’t be allowed to go. A fairy godmother appears and magically turns a pumpkin into a carriage, a rat into a coachman, mice into horses and lizards into footmen. Cinderella can now travel to the ball. When she gets there, she dances with the prince but the fairy godmother warned her she had to leave before the clock strikes 12 or the magic will end. Cinderella forgot and dashed off so fast she left one of her glass slippers behind. Cinderella was soon back in her rags sweeping the floor like before the fairy godmother appeared. The prince found the slipper and insisted he would marry whoever the glass slipper belonged to. He went around giving the slipper to every lady to try on but none of them fitted including the ugly stepsisters. After a while the prince reached Cinderella where the glass slipper fitted perfectly. The fairy godmother waved her wand and she appeared in a gorgeous dress. The prince proposed and the wedding took place where everyone was invited with lots of food and dancing.

[Chloe Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret Mayo has written a variety of fairy tales for younger children. They have the well-known elements of the story in it. Which the children may recognize. The teacher could get the children to predict what will happen next and to use their phonics to sound out some of the story. Children could do shared writing and recreate their own version of Cinderella. There is a good balance between writing and illustrations in the story which is good. It could also be used in a guided reading session in KS1 as there are some words children will know and some words which they can use their phonics to decode and read. Children could also discuss the types of grammar in the story.

[LiteratureAndTea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because this is a simply just the same classic retelling of the beloved chidrens story - cinderalla, I give this a 2.5 out of 5!