“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?”
Neil Gaiman

Sunday, December 16, 2012

A New Twist On The Girl Who Lost Her Glass Slipper


Cinder
By Marissa Meyer

I love a good “girl power” story.  When I was in my senior year of college, I was an RA for a freshman women’s dorm and my group of residents used to tease me because I was always posting articles and posters to boost their confidence as young women taking on the world.  College had given me that gift and I wanted to pass it on to them right from their very first year.  Cinder is a modern twist on the Cinderella fairy tale set in a future that is post WWIV.  Earth’s countries have realigned in the peaceful aftermath and the Moon is populated by a race of people with extraordinary powers and adversarial tendencies. 

Cinder herself is no waif-like wanabee princess waiting for a price to rescue her from the doldrums of her arduous life.  She is an extraordinarily talented cyborg mechanic who works in the market to earn the money to support her stepmother and stepsisters.  Unlike the traditional tale, she is very close to one of the sisters while maintaining the traditional antagonistic relationship with the other as well as with her stepmother.  Marissa’s tale is a non-stop whirl of adventure as Cinder does indeed encounter her Prince, whom she treats as if he were any other customer, only to end her day slamming her doors as her neighbor drops from the highly contagious plague.  What ensues is a trail that leads her to discovering what she is made of and who she is. 
The next book in the series, Scarlet, looks like it will be an exciting traipse through the woods to grandmother’s house and it will be nothing like any of the Red Riding Hood tales you’ve ever read before!  The wolf is most certainly going to be a fun surprise in this version of the story.

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