You Shall Go To The Ball (Cinderella Pop Up Book - Phillida Gili)

Member Name: wendybull

Product:	Cinderella Pop Up Book - Phillida Gili
Date:	26/04/08 (111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pull the tab to make it move

Disadvantages: Tough to pull them in the beginning

This book is a lovely take of the children's classic fairytale and my daughter really enjoys it.

In case you don't know the story - Cinderella is the step-daughter to an evil woman who has two ugly and mean daughters. They make her work like a slave and when the invitations to the ball come through the post they do not let her go. Cinderella is very upset and her fairy godmother magic's her a carriage and a beautiful dress to go to the ball but she must be home by midnight or the magic will disappear.

She goes to the ball and on the stroke of midnight, runs from the palace leaving her shoe behind on the step. The prince vows that whichever maiden fits the glass slipper will be his wife.

The difference with this version of the story is that it is a pop-up/pull the tab book. Actually it is only the last page that pops up but the rest of the pages have a small cardboard tab coming from the edge of the page somewhere. When it is pulled something on the page will move.

For example, on the first page Cinderella is attempting to pull the corset strings tight on her step-sister's dress and if you pull the tab, you see Cinderella leaning back and the edges of the corset coming together. Similarly, when the fairy godmother turns Cinderella into a beautiful maiden with a gorgeous dress, if you pull the tab, her old shabby dress is replaced with flaps that show her new ball gown and so a transformation.

My daughter really loves this idea and thoroughly enjoys her role in telling the story. She waits patiently while I read the words aloud and when the corresponding piece of text is read, she pulls the tab so that the picture will be in the right position within the story.

It seems a little magical to her I think, and she is quite taken with the fact that things can move on each page and some of them move quite a way. For instance Cinderella, fleeing the ball down the steps, is shown with a tab to pull and once done she goes from the top of the steps all the way to the bottom of the page, and her slipper is left behind. My daughter particularly loves this page as you can see the silhouette of the prince running along the ball room windows behind her as she runs down the steps.

Although this is a lovely book, I have a couple of gripes. The illustrations are not as nice and pretty as the Disney version of the book. Cinderella does not have that feminine edge that I have grown to love with my daughter's obsession with the Disney Princesses.

The other problem for me is that the tabs used for pulling the pictures into moving positions are not really as strong as they could be. My daughter is four years old and she cannot always do it the right way. They are very tough when the book is new and you need a good strength in order to get them to move, and this has led to my daughter pulling slightly upwards on some of them rather than sideways, and eventually some of them have torn. However the pages are double sided cardboard and it was fairly easy to get inside each one and cellotape where needed in order for the mechanism to still make the picture work. Shame it didn't work so well though from the beginning.

This book is available from The Book People (www.thebookpeople.co.uk) for the bargain price of £2.00. Even with the technical issues it is worth it in my opinion for the magical look of wonder on your kid's faces.

Summary: RECOMMENDED xx