"Hace mucho tiempo (a long time ago) there lived a beautiful young woman named Adelita." So begins the age-old tale of a kind-hearted young woman, her jealous stepmother, two hateful stepsisters, and a young man in search of a wife. The young man, Javier, falls madly in love with beautiful Adelita, but she disappears from his fiesta at midnight, leaving him with only one clue to her hidden identity a beautiful rebozo shawl. With the rebozo in place of a glass slipper, this favorite fairy tale takes a delightful twist. Tomie dePaola's exquisite paintings, filled with the folk art of Mexico, make this a Cinderella story like no other.
There's no pumpkin coach or glass slipper in sight, but Cinderella fans will find much to like in dePaola's original twist, infused with Mexican warmth and color. His liberal use of Spanish phrases (translated within the text) enlighten as they enliven.
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