Cinderella

Last year's winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal for Snow White in New York, French turns away from the Jazz Age and goes back to a Regency period of Empire waistlines and ornate coiffures. A straightforward telling with short, caption-like pieces of text keeps track of the action on each page. Cinderella is given a soft, smudgy beauty, as is her fairy godmother, while the gruff stepsisters and stepmother are trifling caricatures. All are set on a vast, illusory space of watercolor clouds, elastic landscapes and elongated tree lines. The approach to this fairy tale isn't nearly as novel and fresh as that found in Snow White, but the saucy, irreverent look of the pictures is most welcome. Ages 4-8. (May)