Smoky Mountain Rose - An Appalachian Cinderella

Now lis’en. I reckon ye heard o’ Cinderella, but lemme tell ye a story ‘bout a sweet li’l thing named Rose. Well, she was livin’ in Tarbelly Creek, in the heart o’ the Smoky Mountains, with her daddy, her stepma, and her two stepsisters, Annie and Liza Jane. Then one day her daddy up and died, and Rose’s life became just about as hard as it could be.
Now it so happened that on the other sid o’ the creek, this real rich feller by the name o’ Seb gets the bright idea to invite all the neighbor-people to a fancy ol’ party, thinkin’ he might find himself a wife. Ye know that part.
Well, of course, Annie and Liza Jane are dreamin’ about dancin’ the night away with Seb. They been orderin’ up from the catalog sure as they been orderin’ Miss Rose round the farm. And it ain’t till the night of the shindig when Rose starts a-cryin’ that one of the hogs comes moseyin’ up to the fence and starts talkin’ to her. And that hog just happens to know a little magic…
Alan Schroeder’s unbeatable story-tellin’ and Brad Sneed’s fine paintin’ fit together neater’n a jigsaw. In fact, this is ‘bout the best tellin’ o’ Cinderella we ever saw blow through Tarbelly Creek.

Kirkus- Schroeder’s version of this tale is based directly on the familiar 17th-century Perrault tale, but written in Appalachian dialect and placed “smack in the heart o’ the Smoky Mountains.” Cinderella—Rose in this tale—is the gentle daughter of a father who dies not long after he remarries. Her stepsisters and stepmother are cut from the usual bitter cloth, but there are some twists: The role of the fairy godmother is played by a huge hog, and the last image is of Rose (still wearing the slippers) and her handsome feller in old age, rocking on their porch swing. The watercolor illustrations owe much to the powerful, elongated figures and skewed perspective of American painter Thomas Hart Benton. The action is often seen up from ground level: an ant’s-eye view of the hog, and Rose’s glass pumps as a frame for her horse-drawn wagon, are strong and unusual images. A particularly nice touch is that pretty Rose has ordinary brown hair, while her stepsister, homely though they are, are the more traditionally glamorous blond and brunette.