Hilary Knight's Cinderella
It's hard to make a story as old and oft-told as Cinderella fresh again.  Yet Hilary Knight, best known for hisEloiseillustrations, manages  to apply his unique wit and familiar illustrative style to the fairy tale while  retaining the magic of the original story. Cinderella is lovely, of course, and  her nasty sisters are pointy-nosed and outrageously vain. But Knight's depiction  of Prince Charming provides a happy departure from tradition: he's pudgy and,  well, kind of goofy looking. Modern readers will like Cinderella's slightly more  brazen ways, too; although still demure, Cinderella steps right out of the  kitchen when the prince arrives at her house with the glass slipper. "Let me  try," she says, much to her stepmother and sisters' horror. Astute readers will  enjoy picking up on subtle details: the tiny fairy godmother hiding under  Cinderella's pumpkin-like stool, Cinderella's mother's gravestone in the front  yard, and poor, beleaguered Cinderella's chore list next to the invitation to  the Prince's ball. (Ages 4 to 8)--Emilie Coulter