Axolotl-Ella: A Sort-of Cinderella Story

Messner (Once upon a Book) and Cho (Don’t Eat Eustace) regenerate “Cinderella” into an aquatic picture book that’s equal parts earnest outing and narrative spoof. “Once upon a warm and murky lake,” salamander Axolotl-Ella has big plans (“Huge plans. Deliciously ambitious plans”) that hinge on attending the King’s Festival to meet the Prince. One by one, the tale’s familiar beats appear: discouraging relatives, magical transformations, improbably fabricated slippers, a besotted monarch, and dramatic midnight exits. But gleefully pointed variations emerge, too. One is comically rooted in axolotls’ ability to regrow their limbs, and another culminates in a happily ever after that prioritizes community inclusion. Ella realizes her goal of partnering with the royal conductor to open a dance hall where “any axolotl could twirl and whirl to the glorious music of the royal orchestra, just as they were. Everyone was invited.” Taking the feel of an illustrator having sketched live for a rapt and giggling crowd, freewheeling, fizzy spreads feature a supremely confident, gilled protagonist and costumed amphibians partying down. With an irreverent, chart-your-own-course spirit, it’s a slippery, smart, and subversive story that wriggles free of most fairy tale expectations. An author’s note concludes. Ages 5–8. (June)