My daughter is a fan of princesses and pink, much to the chagrin of my wife and I. She does also play with cars and dinosaurs and her favorite program is Wild Krats, leading us to believe she has a healthy diversity of play, so perhaps I don’t have all that much to complain about. However, I am always on the look out for books that challenge the standard princess tropes. I’ve had hits and misses, with her growing bored with many of books I offer her. But a recent find, thanks to this great article reviewing six such books, struck princess gold: Interstellar Cinderella.
It is a reworking of the Cinderella story in which the young tool loving girl is an aspiring rocket mechanic. After receiving an invitation to the prince’s rocket parade, the Step Mother steals Cinderella’s tool box and flies off with the step sisters, leaving Cinderella alone with a broken rocket ship. The rest of the story is a great science fiction twist on this old princess tale, filled with great illustrations and catchy rhymes. And my daughter loves it. I think we read it three times when I first brought home from the library and everyday since. It has become a favorite bedtime read. And recently when we were spending some quality family time together assembly a bed, she held up her toy tool kit and exclaimed, “I’m mechanic Cinderella!”
Musing the World 