Why Wait For A Prince?

Author: Ellen Jackson
Illustrator: Kevin O'Malley
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0688123228

Ah, fairy tales...magical stories filled with the promise that no matter what terrible obstacles you may face there will always be a handsome prince to come to your rescue. Wait. Is that really what I want to teach my daughter? To simply accept the wrongs being dealt to you while you wait for a man to save the day. NO WAY!

In arrives my new hero, Cinder Edna, by Ellen Jackson. She is NOT they type of girl who will wait around for a prince to save her from an arduous situation. The character, Cinder Edna is in stark contrast with her neighbor, aptly named Cinderella. The two girls have similar situations, both being forced to work for their wicked stepmothers and stepsisters. But instead of accepting her lot in life like Cinderella, Cinder Edna uses the skills she has learned to earn money on the side. Money that will pay for a dress for the ball she buys on layaway and money that will also pay for a bus trip to and from the ball. All this while her neighbor, Cinderella, traditionally depends on a fairy godmother to give her a dress and a pumpkin turned into a carriage.

Both CinderEdna and Cinderella end up marrying their princes. But while Cinderella ends up marrying the dull, handsome Prince Randolph and living in the grand palace, "the girl who had been known as Cinder Edna ended up in a small cottage with solar heating. During the day she studied waste disposal engineering and cared for orphaned kittens." Cinder Edna happily marries the handsome prince's brother, Rupert, who is in charge of the recycling plant.

With the combination of the simple, direct writing style of Ellen Jackson and the appeal of the illustrations of Kevin O'Malley, Cinder Edna proves to be a book that grabs, and keeps, the attention of children. All this while sending a message of what can be done without the help of a fairy godmother. Depend on yourself, not others, to change your station in life.

Fairy tales, in their classical form, can instill hope in a hopeless situation. They can stress the importance of remaining true and kind in the face of adversity and rewards such behavior with "happily ever after". There are now oodles of re-tellings of the classical fairy tale from the perspective of different cultures, such as; A Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story by Rebecca Hickox, Yh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China by Ai-Ling Louie and Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe. All of which should be included in a unit of study on fairy tales. I would also like to think that a humorous twist on the classic fairy tale, like Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson, is also necessary in such a unit of study and would be a useful tool to compare and contrast with the original Cinderella.