Cinderella's Secret Diary by Faye Hanson

Everyone is familiar with the Cinderella story. Plus there are so many versions of it in book form. So how do you put a fresh spin on it? Well, this secret diary is that fresh approach.

My 6-year-old daughter loves this book. She loved it before we even read it. This is because it is like a scrapbook throughout with Cinderella putting in a lot of keepsakes of her time being treated like a slave by her stepmother and ugly stepsisters, and among the keepsakes are some that you can remove - Cinderella's invite to the ball, a paper tiara and a paper folding make-up mirror. It looks beautiful. Also the opening page is clever in that it says "This book belongs to..." with the ... being filled in with Cinderella and she likes that.

Then we read the story which is very well done, although the entries are not the longest. It comes across how quickly things happen between Cinderella's dad and the stepmother, how quickly things change for her, how much work the ugly sisters and the step mother are making Cinderella do and the hardship she is suffering. Then there are extended entries covering the day of the ball and the events after happen so quickly to give us the happy ending.

Perhaps it is a little short but fairy tales are, and this is so well presented, and little girls love secret things don't they, so what's not to like?

A little snippet of the artwork inside

This book is listed on Amazon UK HERE.