Prince Cinders (1987)

by Babette Cole

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• The main point of this story is that fairytale stereotypes are just as ludicrous--and perhaps more apparent--if the gender roles are reversed.
• The problem faced by the hero (Prince Cinders) is how to assert his princely rights in spite of a general lack of he-man virtues--as embodied by his carousing older brothers.
• The hero's plan to solve the problem is to enlist the help of a bumbling fairy. In typical comedy-of-errors-fashion, the original plan fails miserably. Yet, the hero manages to prevail by accidentally appearing to rescue, and thus winning over, a no-nonsense princess.
• The child appeal of this story arises from the unexpected juxtaposition of traditional ingredients (oppressed junior siblings, magic-wand-wielding fairies, and assorted royalty) and modern accoutrements (showy cars, glitzy discos).
• The parent/teacher appeal of this story is due to its confidence-building theme (the weakling wins out--largely because he's a weakling), and the effective critique of some stereotypical preconceptions.

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My notes while reading the book

• It seems regrettable that a book devoted to shattering stereotypes would use three guys straight out of a stereotypical pizza commercial as the unenlightened male figures.
  • I would think that the truly insidious cowboy swaggering down the main street of today's global village is someone like Bill Gates--who in turn looks just like Prince Cinders twenty years hence.
  • And while I'm in full rant mode: I'd also like to vent against the use (in one of the illustrations) of the word "macho"--one of the biggest red herrings in present-day English. Borrowing the term from another language implies that proper Anglo males are naturally immune from testosterone-addled behavior. Regrettably, they occasionally succumb to contagion from those hairy ape-men south of the border...
• The spell that inadvertently turns Cinders into an ape culminates with a humorous parody of the puzzling non-sequiturs interspersed in real fairy tales: the Prince, in his guise as a hideous ape, sees himself as a gorgeous hunk because, well, that's the way the spell works. So there.

Class discussion

• The fairy that couldn't shoot straight--pokes fun at quick-fix solutions (see also 'muscle enhancer' in an illustration).
• Princess Lovelypenny is self-assured and in command--but she remains recognizable as a fairytale princess because she expects to be rescued from the hairy ape.

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