Cindy-Ellen A Wild Western Cinderella

By  Susan Lowell

Illustrations by: Jane Manning

From Publishers Weekly
"Savory slang adds punch to this tale, which stresses the fairy godmother's message that `magic is plumb worthless without gumption.' Illustrations lush with cactus-flower colors and pale maize gold enhance this rawhide-and-lace fantasy," said PW.

From School Library Journal
With a yee-haw and a do-si-do, the everlasting Cinderella story blooms again. Cindy Ellen's stepmother is the orneriest woman west of the Mississippi, and her two daughters are just as mean. Cindy Ellen is kept from the rodeo and square dance, but then her fairy godmother appears with a golden six-gun, and points out that Cindy needs some gumption before anything else. So off she goes with diamond spurs on her little boots. She rides the bucking bronco and steals the heart of one Joe Prince.

The next night at the square dance she and Joe dance the night away, with the usual midnight foofaraw. But Joe tracks her with the mate to the diamond spur, and they get hitched "and live happily ever after in a ranch house full of love and rodeo trophies." The nasty sisters marry city slickers. The smooth, hard-edged illustrations lack personality, despite Cindy Ellen's many freckles; the fairy godmother has the most spirit, in her huge sombrero and red-fringed gloves.