Ponyella

Cinderella gets a peppy makeover in this pony tale from the trio behind the Jellybeans series. Ponyella has an idyllic life until two mean-spirited ponies move onto the farm. While Plumpkin and Bun Bun snicker at her, Ponyella is forced to pull a cart piled with coal, and her white coat "became as gray as a rain cloud." When the haughty ponies are spruced up and taken to the royal pony championship, forlorn Ponyella is visited by her caped "fairy godmare," who turns an apple core into a horse trailer, a mouse into a driver, and the bedraggled pony into a magnificent animal with diamond horseshoes and roses adorning her tail and mane. The frillier moments in Munsinger's pastel-dominated paintings are offset by lightly comedic particulars: Ponyella's human driver still grasps the cheese the mouse was holding, the horses display outsize facial expressions, and the young princess who judges the pony competition in which Ponyella excels—and who finds Ponyella's lost horseshoe—wears a crown on her riding helmet. A sweet, playful adaptation that's just right for the My Little Pony crowd. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)