There is perhaps no better loved, no more universal story than Cinderella. Almost every country in the world has a version of it, but the favorite of story-tellers is the French version by Charles Perrault.

This translation is excellent for story-telling and also for reading aloud. Marcia Brown's illustrations are full of magic and enchantment from the little cupids putting back the hands of the clock to the last scene at the palace. They are pictures that will stay in a child's mind....

First published in 1947, this picture book classic has remained one of Marcia Brown's most popular and enduring books. This story, about three hungry soldiers who outwit the greedy inhabitants of a village into providing them with a feast, is based on an old French tale....

There is perhaps no better loved, no more universal story than Cinderella. Almost every country in the world has a version of it, but the favorite of story-tellers is the French version by Charles Perrault.

This translation is excellent for story-telling and also for reading aloud. Marcia Brown's illustrations are full of magic and enchantment from the little cupids putting back the hands of the clock to the last scene at the palace. They are pictures that will stay in a child's mind....

Three soldiers came marching down the road towards a French village. The peasants seeing them coming, suddenly became very busy, for soldiers are often hungry. So all the food was hidden under mattresses or in barns. There followed a battle of wits, with the soldiers equal to the occasion. Stone soup? Why, of course, they could make a wonderful soup of stones...but, of course, one must add a carrot or tow...some meat...so it went.

Marcia Brown has made of this old tale a very gay book, a carnival of activity, of dancing and laughter. So much goes on in the pictures that children who have once heard the story will turn to them again and again, retelling the story for themselves.

A French version of the story is available under the title Une Drôle de Soupe....

"No one shall tell me that I was once a mouse!" roars the tiger. But an old hermit, mighty at magic, does tell him; for it was he who first changed the tiger from a wretched little mouse to a stout cat, to a big dog, and finally, to his proud and royal self. Youngest readers will take special delight in seeing these changes take place in Marcia Brown's dramatic picturing of the tiger's fall from grace. Older boys and girls will read more meaning into the text.

A rajah of ancient India is said to have had such popular animal fables collected as a "mirror for princes" to instruct his errant sons. Marcia Brown retells this fable from the Hitopadesa in vigorous style and illustrates it in woodcuts of exceptional quality. With a fluidity rare in the medium, they achieve the difficult feat of retaining their strong appeal for children while captivating art lovers of all ages....

Three soldiers came marching down the road towards a French village. The peasants seeing them coming, suddenly became very busy, for soldiers are often hungry. So all the food was hidden under mattresses or in barns. There followed a battle of wits, with the soldiers equal to the occasion. Stone soup? Why, of course, they could make a wonderful soup of stones...but, of course, one must add a carrot or tow...some meat...so it went.

Marcia Brown has made of this old tale a very gay book, a carnival of activity, of dancing and laughter. So much goes on in the pictures that children who have once heard the story will turn to them again and again, retelling the story for themselves.

A French version of the story is available under the title Une Drôle de Soupe....