I’ve decided to join the “Perfect Picture Book Friday” posts (a la Susanna HIll) to share some of my favorite picture book finds.  My first pick is below and since it’s National Poetry Month, as well as Ryhming Picture Book Month, I decided to pick a rhyming book as my first review. 

Title: Interstellar Cinderella

Written By: Deborah Underwood

Illustrated By: Meg Hunt

Chronicle Books, May 2015, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5

Themes/Topics: being true to yourself, finding your own talents, revisionary fairy tales

Opening:

“Once upon a planetoid,

amid her tools and sprockets,

a girl named Cinderella dreamed

of fixing fancy rockets.”

Brief Synopsis: With a little help from her fairy godrobot, Cinderella is going to the ball–but when the prince’s ship has mechanical trouble, someone will have to zoom to the rescue! Readers will thank their lucky stars for this irrepressible fairy tale retelling, its independent heroine, and its stellar happy ending.

Links To Resources: Some hands-on tool crafts with the kids! http://www.chroniclebooks.com/blog/2015/06/17/ms-meghan-makes-galactic-crafting-with-interstellar-cinderella/

Why I Like This Book:  First, I love it because it’s a very creative retelling of a fairy tale (and I always love a retold fairy tale!).  Cinderella and her sonic socket wrench will go far (though I admit I giggled at the barest difference in tools from Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver) and here is a revisionist (& futuristic) Cinderella who longs to be a spaceship mechanic. She pursues her dreams and still gets a happily ever after of her own choosing (with a few twists thrown in).