Review: Cinderella Smith: The More the Merrier by Stephanie Barden

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Cinderella Smith: The More the Merrier. by Stephanie Barden, illustrated by Diane Goode. April 24, 2012. HarperCollins. 144 pages. ISBN: 9780062004406

In The More the Merrier, Cinderella, so named because she frequently loses shoes, has a lot going on. Her parents are away, so her Aunt Flora is staying with her and her sister, Tess. The spelling bee is coming up, and Cinderella wants to win, so she needs to learn a lot of spelling words in a short time. She’s also recently started making up her own words and is working hard to bring “vexylent” into the lexicon of everyone she knows. And then there’s Rosemary T., who is so mean to Cinderella that Cinderella has stopped talking to her altogether. Aunt Flora says Cinderella and Rosemary need to have a “what’s what” to clear the air, but Cinderella doesn’t know what to say, or what the final outcome will be.

I enjoyed the first Cinderella Smith book, but found it difficult to review, since it was the first book in the series and included a lot of exposition. I knew I liked it, but had a hard time articulating why, and in the end, didn’t bother with a review. This time, though, the characters are all established, and I could dive right into a good story. As my description demonstrates, there is a lot going on in this book, but the author manages each thread of the story very well. Cinderella’s fascination with creating new words ties in nicely with her spelling bee studying. Rosemary T.’s cruelty eventually ties into Aunt Flora’s visit, when Rosemary begins saying hurtful things about Flora. Finally, the spelling bee itself and Cinderella’s eventual face-off with Rosemary both happen in the climax of the story. Barden ties everything together so that no thread gets lost, and neither does the reader.

There are a lot of nice details in this book that bring Cinderella’s home and school environments to life. I love the way the tables in her classroom represent the different cliques among her peers - the smart boys’ table, the loud sports boys’ table, the Rosemarys’ table, the arty girls, and the stamp collecting girls. I also love the Table Book Talks, the kids give to each other, where they share the main theme of a book they’ve read, and then some supporting details. I especially enjoyed it when Cinderella uses the Table Book Talk concept to explain her feelings to Rosemary T.

This book is perfect for third and fourth grade girls who are experiencing their first friendship crises. It doesn’t shy away from how hard it is when a friend wants to stop being friends, but Cinderella’s positive attitude and desire to be friends with everyone would give anyone hope for better days ahead.

I borrowed Cinderella Smith: The More the Merrier from my local public library. 

For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.