Don't Cook Cinderella

by Francesca Simon

It's just an ordinary day at Mother Goose's Academy. There's Miss Good Fairy teaching the Three Little Pigs, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood to read and write - while Miss Bad Fairy is inciting the Ugly Sisters, the Big Bad Wolf, Troll, Wicked Stepmother, Wicked Witch and Jealous Queen to gobble them all up. The result? Chaos! Witty, fast-paced and anarchic, this is a complete story with ten short chapters ('C.A.T. Spells Dog', 'What Troll Learned', 'Snakes and Snails for Lunch') that take us through the school day. Originally published as Big Class, Little Class, this freshly illustrated reissue brings Francesca Simon and Tony Ross together again in a wonderful romp that Horrid Henry fans will revel in.

Genres: Childrens

86 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2005

About the author

Francesca Simon grew up in California and attended both Yale and Oxford Universities, where she specialised in Medieval Studies. How this prepared her to write children’s books she cannot imagine, but it did give her a thorough grounding in alliteration.

She then threw away a lucrative career as a medievalist and worked as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue (US). After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time. One of the UK’s best-selling children’s writers, Francesca has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular HORRID HENRY series, which has now sold over twelve million copies.

Francesca won the Children’s Book of the Year in 2008 at the British Book Awards for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. HORRID HENRY is published in 24 countries and is also an animated CITV series. She lives in London with her husband, son, and Tibetan Spaniel, Shanti.

Reviews

[AlenGarou]

Uno dei primi libri che ho letto nel corso della mia noiosa quanto schizofrenica vita XD
Non so perché non l'ho inserito prima in lista, bah. Anyway, la mia copia del 1998 è ancora intera... o quasi. Dentro avevo iniziato a colorarci, va beh...
Genio.

[Bianca Pastore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se cercate un libro coinvolgente da leggere ad un gruppo di bambini questo è il libro giusto per voi! Basta solo un po’ di teatralità nel leggerlo e il gioco è fatto

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

My eldest daughter raved about a number of times so my youngest and me decided to give it a go. Frankly it was disappointing, from a kids point of view it is fun, you got some songs, well known characters and illustrations. For an adult though the illustrations are poor, a group of adults in the junior class makes little sense, the dialogue was annoying so much so that I found myself wanting to give the characters a slap. The Queen, Snow White's stepmum, couldn't read or do basic maths.

Too much of this book is stupid and we didn't enjoy it, back to Roald Dahl methinks.

[Arwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 maybe I'll read it to my nephews someday.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo się cieszę, że moje dzieciaki czytają, i zawsze chętnie czytam książki, z którymi przychodzą do mnie mówią: "Mama, musisz to przeczytać!".
Książka jest napisana przez autorkę serii o Koszmarnym Karolku, i choć ta seria u nas sutąpiła miejsca Dzienniczkowi Cwaniaczka i Tomaszowi Niefartowi, to "Tylko nie gotujcie Kopciuszka" na moich dzieciakach zrobiło wrażenie. No bo czy koncepcja, w której postaci z różnych baśni chodzą razem do szkoły nie jest intrygująca? Mamy tutaj klasę, pod opieką Dobrej Wróżki, składającą się z młodszych dzieciaków, a więc Jasia i Małgosi, Czerwonego Kapturka, Śnieżki czy Śpiącej królewny, oraz starszą klasę, której wywawczynią jest Zła Wróżka, a w skład której wchodzą Wielki zły wilk, macocha oraz brzydkie siostry, Zła Królowa czy Baba Jaga. Co może pójść nie tak? Albo raczej, czy takie przedsięwzięcie ma szansę się udać? I kto jest na tyle odważny aby stanąć na czele takiej placówki wychowawczej jako dyrektor? Bardzo przyjemna choć dość przewidywalna książeczka, do wchłonięcia na raz.

[Saee :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snails and worms for lunch and 'how to roast child' classes.
Fave charecter was Bad Fairy for sure!
Loved it!
Casual canabalism threw me off a bit.
But fox and trolls wanting to eat kids doesn't count as canabalism I supose.
I love how the end of this book is beginning of each charecter's fairytale.
The plan to beat up 'bad class' was half cooked.
And I didn't get the 'Mother Goose' reference.

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought overall cute and enjoyable. The ending was very abrupt, I "got it" but felt like you were left on a page incomplete. Maybe saying "And they lived happily ever after" is done for a reason? Anything?

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

My six-year-old loved it and I wasn't reading it for myself...!

[Domenico Di Caprio · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.8

[Maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

L' avevo letto da piccola. Banale, per bambini molto piccoli

[Lokum Çocuk Kutuphanesi]

Okurken çok eğlendim.

[phie ꨄ︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favourite childhood book ever

[Jasmeet Dagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't cook Cinderella is a school story with a twist. Miss Good Fairy is teaching Hansel, Gretal, Cinderalla, Snow White and many more to be good fairy tale characters and to read and write. while, on the other hand Miss Bad fairy is teaching Wicked Witch, Big Bad Wolf, Goblin, Ogre and many more to be the baddest and most evilest baddies that they can be. The bad class are plotting to trouble the good class but the baddies get a shock when the good class outsmart them.

The book is funny and clever. It breaks the mould of a regular fairy tale which has children laughing their heads off.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would happen if Snow White, the Queen, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, three Little Pigs, and other children's stories characters live at the same time? They were classmates in the story Don't Cook Cinderalla, learning how to write, how to count, eat snakes and snails, play games and be a witch.

I don't read the Horrid Henry series, but I pretty like this book, with illustration by Tony Ross. The story is even more hilarious than Snow White and the Seven aliens. A good read for parents and children.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Horrid Henry!

[Erik Fazekas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oproti Horrid Henry sklamanie... ale zasa pre deti asi poriadna zábava :)

[Sina & Ilona Glimmerfee · Rating 2 out of 5]

In der einen Klasse lernen die guten Märchengestalten und in der anderen die bösen. Die drei kleinen Schweinchen, Cinderella & Co. müssen vorsichtig sein, denn der Troll, der böse Wolf und ihre Lehrerin, die böse Fee planen einen Überfall, bei dem die Guten im Kochtopf landen sollen.
Mit diesem Buch wollte ich meine Englischkenntnisse aufpolieren, aber ideal ist das Buch für den Einstieg nicht. Es gibt sehr viele Vokabeln, für z.B. schreien, flüstern, stoßen u.ä.., die sich in immer anderen Varianten wiederholen. Die Illustrationen sind witzig gestaltet.