"McClintock's pen-and-ink and watercolour illustrations emulate old-fashioned wood engravings, and the traditional story seems suffused with magic...A splendid (and kind-spirited) retelling of a well-known tale."
Here's a gentle version of Perrault's classic tale: no stepsister cuts off her toes to fit a shoe and everyone is forgiven at the end. McClintock places her sweet Cinderella in the Paris of Louis XIV, with period fashion and interior and architectural detail from Versailles and the Paris Opera. Pen, India ink, and watercolour make for delightful dancing lines and exquisite colour: Cinderella's first ball gown is a profusion of roses under a plum overskirt, and her hair is decorated with a huge rose trellis. The stepsisters, one fat and one thin (both mean), and the prince, a graceful boy in a powdered wig, make a pleasing supporting cast. Cinderella's little grey cat appears on almost every page.