Axolotl-Ella
A Sort-of Cinderella Story
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Cinderella has never been so adorable--or amphibious!--as in this fractured fairytale picture book by New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner, with art by award-winning illustrator Lian Cho.
Axolotl-Ella is a quick and clever salamander with a daring, deliciously ambitious dream. All she needs to do to make her dream a reality is to meet the Prince at the King’s Festival. So with a little bit of magic from the lake of the night, Ella makes her skin gleam and her gills glow--and conjures the perfect outfit for a fancy party!
But the Prince talks a lot, and the magic wears off at midnight. Can Axolotl-Ella find a way to make her dream come true, or will she be stuck at the murky lake with her annoying stepsisters forever?
Bestselling author Kate Messner has created a funny, empowering retelling of the Cinderella story with a confident heroine who's way too practical for glass slippers. Complemented with laugh-out-loud illustrations by award-winning illustrator Lian Cho, and filled with amusing axolotl facts, Axolotl-Ella is destined to become a storytime favorite.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Messner (Once upon a Book) and Cho (Don't Eat Eustace) regenerate "Cinderella" into an aquatic picture book that's equal parts earnest outing and narrative spoof. "Once upon a warm and murky lake," salamander Axolotl-Ella has big plans ("Huge plans. Deliciously ambitious plans") that hinge on attending the King's Festival to meet the Prince. One by one, the tale's familiar beats appear: discouraging relatives, magical transformations, improbably fabricated slippers, a besotted monarch, and dramatic midnight exits. But gleefully pointed variations emerge, too. One is comically rooted in axolotls' ability to regrow their limbs, and another culminates in a happily ever after that prioritizes community inclusion. Ella realizes her goal of partnering with the royal conductor to open a dance hall where "any axolotl could twirl and whirl to the glorious music of the royal orchestra, just as they were. Everyone was invited." Taking the feel of an illustrator having sketched live for a rapt and giggling crowd, freewheeling, fizzy spreads feature a supremely confident, gilled protagonist and costumed amphibians partying down. With an irreverent, chart-your-own-course spirit, it's a slippery, smart, and subversive story that wriggles free of most fairy tale expectations. An author's note concludes. Ages 5–8.
