Cinderella Skeleton

The other day I posted about getting some new Halloween books to add to my picture book collection. I never realized I had a collection, to be honest. Getting rid of books is nearly impossible for me. I have a hard time tossing out my outdated AAA travel books. So, I guess technically, I collect books. Lately, I've been attracted to darker picture books, along the lines of Tim Burton or Neil Gaiman. The other book I got was Cinderella Skeleton by Robert S. San Souci and illustrated by David Catrow. It is also published by Voyager Books, through Harcourt, Inc. It came out in the year 2000, so it's been around awhile. This is what the book says on the back ...

Poor Cinderella! She has no one to help her hang the cobwebs and arrange dead flowers -- certainly not her evil stepsisters.

But the Halloween Ball is just around the corner ...

Will Cinderella find happiness at last?

I haven't read this one to the boys yet, but I will soon. It's written in verse and it's difficult to get into it reading it silently. I'm sure it will be different reading it aloud. It has all the basics of the traditional Cinderella story, but with a ghoulish cast of characters. The illustrations are dark and creepy, but at the same time -- amazing. My favorite picture shows Cinderella all dressed up to go to the ball wearing a gown of lace, complete with a dandelion weed on her head. You can see that on the cover above as well -- so purdy.

I've always been skeptical about remakes, especially when it came to movies, television shows, and songs. With books, it's different for me. I like reading the original first and then finding as many different versions as I can. The boys and I usually do themed weeks in school where we take one basic story (like Cinderella) and find different versions to study and compare. We really have a lot of fun with that. In fact, it was a week-long study of The Gingerbread Man that inspired me to write one of my own retellings, The Marshmallow Man. I can't wait to share that with you soon. But anyway, if you like these darker picture books, you'll probably love Cinderella Skeleton. The illustrations alone make it worth the cost of the book.