Cinderella Rex (Once Before Time Book 1)

This book is seriously cute.

Cinderella Rex lives with her stompmother and two stompsisters. Her defining characteristic is that she loves to dance. So when the family gets an invitation to the ball, Cinderella Rex is excited... until she gets left at home. But not to worry: her Fairy Triceratops has everything covered. With a wave of her magic horns, she provides a dress and shoes (with hilariously separate toes) and magical transportation. At the ball, Cinderella Rex just can't help herself and starts to dance to the music. Everyone stops and stares, because she's the best dancer they've ever seen! The prince is taken with her dancing abilities, but before he has a chance to talk to her, the clock strikes midnight and Cinderella Rex must flee. Because her arms are too short to pick it up, she has to leave her lost shoe behind and escape into the night. The prince uses the shoe to go searching for the amazing dancer he saw at the ball, and... well, most of us know the rest.

The illustrations are adorable, and the clever little plays on words and jokes about tiny T-Rex arms are amusing. But what I really like about this one is that the prince isn't smitten by a pretty face; he's intrigued by Cinderella Rex's skill as a dancer. In fact, there's really no romance here at all. The prince's quest to find the mysterious dancer is more about intrigue and appreciation than it is about trying to find a mate. We need more fairy tale retellings like this.

Cinderella Rex is lots of fun. Those who enjoy fairy tales--especially ones with new and modern twists--will find plenty to enjoy here.

Fantastic addition for fans of both fairy tales and dinosaurs. The illustrations are bright and fun (and I love the detail that she couldn't pick up her lost shoe because her arms couldn't reach!). The adaptation of the prince seeking Cinderella out so she could teach him how to dance is a nice, modern, and age-appropriate change.

Very cute story for children who love fairy tales and dinosaurs, with fun, colourful illustrations. I loved the play on words with 'stompmother/sisters' lol. I also thought the twist at the end with the broken shoe was very clever.

What My Kids Loved: The beautiful illustrations were full of glitters and little sparkle spots that just made for a lovely book. My daughter was asking me not to turn the page yet so that she could look a little longer! She loved that the story was a Cinderella version, because Disney is everything right now! Finally, she liked that Cinderella loved to dance, because she does too!

What I Loved: I also enjoyed the illustrations, they really were just beautiful. I liked the story because it was a take on Cinderella, but it wasn't a romance-love story, it was a love of dance story. That was a nice change to the traditional story. I also enjoyed that the characters were dinosaurs; that was just cute.

What's This Book About Anyway?
Cinderella Rex just loves to dance. She lives with her very mean "stomp"mother and "stomp" sisters. A ball is being held at the castle, but Cinderella Rex is not allowed to go! Then, her fairy Triceratops arrives and provides her with her dress and carriage. She's going to be able to dance at the ball! Of course, the story has her losing her shoe and her midnight curfew. The slight changes in how the prince finds her so she can teach him to dance were just perfect.

A very attractive look at the Cinderella story, but peopled by dinosaurs. The issue with it may well be that it doesn't exactly "have" to be peopled by dinosaurs – the only benefit we get from this is one quip that seems to come too late to justify the decision. But the ending, in being rather different to the usual, is a blindingly obvious point that I don't think I've seen in any other telling of the story before. So the wacky casting is still a little dubious, but a lot of thought has been put into this – and certainly the design shows great artistry. Recommended.

I really enjoyed the illustrations that went with the book. Although it’s modeled after Cinderella, it has it’s own uniqueness with the dinosaurs that young children will enjoy.

I need more of these books! I love fairy tales. I love dinosaurs. I love this story. It is cute, and felt that the story was still true to the lesson while being more empowering and fun for kids and not so much a “prince saves the princess” cliche.

I would love stories like this for my kids and my niece and nephew. It is relevant, bold and colourful as well as great for any child.

This is cute and I love that it is a dinosaur book that is geared more towards girls. The pictures are adorable. I was hoping for a bit of a variation of the traditional Cinderella story but overall it is a cute story book.

Cinderella Rex by author Christy Webster is an adorable and fresh children’s book worth the read (every time!) the plot and characters are written beautifully for the young readers, it did not disappoint!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Approved by my fairy tale loving 3 year old.

A pretty simple retelling of Cinderella, except that they are all dinosaurs. They're still personified, living in houses and wearing human type clothes. There's no romance here, the Prince is excited to find the great dancer he saw so they will give him lessons, so kids in the kissing is yucky phase will still enjoy.

The art style is cute, with friendly looking dinos and texture given with scratch out rather than black lineart. Cinderella Rex was actually my least favorite design of the characters, it is telling that almost everyone else is an herbivore, maybe the illustrator knows where her strengths lie. I loved the clothing and dresses (more the feather and leaf shapes that make them up than the Prince's fleur-de-lis sportcoat which felt a little out of place in the art style) and it takes skill to get clothes on creatures with tails, some of whom are on four legs. There was one picture, of Cinderella Rex running down the stairs in her long skirt and her tail was fully visible from behind her, which doesn't make much sense. Somewhere in the design or editing process someone should have questioned that. It's the sort of thing nitpicky kids will notice and complain about too, trust me.

The changes to the text are mostly single words, they aren't stepsisters, they're STOMPsisters etc. There are some cute details like Cinderella not being able to pick up her shoe because her little arms can't reach (I am kind of betting that that detail was the first thing created for this story and the reason she was designed as a T-rex). I am interested in seeing where the series goes with other folklore, and I hope there are more little details and twists like that one.

I love this new twist on Cinderella. I think that by making the characters as dinosaurs, Christy Webster has broken through the gender stereotypes that come along with both princess stories and dinosaurs. I also appreciate that marriage and happily ever after is not a part of this story's ending. It is so important to teach kids about being kind to one another, to be friends with people who are different than you (gender, type of dinosaur, etc.), and to be true to yourself. Cinderella Rex does that as the heroine of the story doesn't run off to marry the prince, she teaches him how to do her favorite thing, which is to dance. I think that changing the ending so that Cinderella and the prince are friends with a shared hobby that they both enjoy is a beautiful new ending than to keep pushing the ideas of marriage on to children from such young ages.

Once we took a close look at the cover, we all gave out a big chuckle. Good twist on the Cinderella story with stomp mother and fairy triceratops.
All the details and whimsical drawings add to the fun.

Cinderella Rex is a cute spin on the popular fairy tale, Cinderella. Cinderella Rex is about a t-rex who loves to dance but can't because she has to take care of her stomp mother and stomp sisters. This book was so cute and well written!

The boys I read this to loved it! They really enjoyed looking at the dinosaurs. We will definitely be buying a hard copy of this book!

What a super cute retelling of Cinderella using dinosaurs. My 2 year old granddaughter loved it and wants it read to her over and over.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honesty review.

"Cinderella Rex ran down the steps. Her shoe fell off! She tried to pick it up, but her arms could not reach it."

Major kudos for cracking me up with this line! You see, Cinderella in this book is a T-Rex, and we all know that T-Rex arms are mostly worthless! :)

This was a super cute Cinderella-esque tale using dinosaurs. I chose this title to read because my kids are all about the dinos! And I wasn't let down, and neither were they!

Aww! A cute, easy to read dino-themed fairy tale. The illustrations are great and the text is appropriate for a 1-2nd grader to read on his/her own.

My 5 year old daughter liked the dinosaur twist on Cinderella. This is a silly book, perfect for this age. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Cinderella Rex was a lot of fun to read. This book put a ton of new spins on this classic tale, and that was what made it great. You will take a journey into the past and see this tale told in a whole new way. This is a book I think kids will love to read.

This story ticks all the boxes for our family. Dinosaurs, especially T-Rex are all over my grandchildren's house, from wall hangings, to bedding and quilts. This retelling of Cinderella using dinosaurs gave it just the twist we loved. Cinderella Rex is not looking to get married, but she just wants to dance. The fairy triceratops makes her wish come true and when she gets to the ball, everyone, including the prince, wants to know who the amazing dancer is. Of course midnight strikes and when she loses a shoe running off, she can't pick it up because of her tiny arms (we loved that part). I enjoyed that there was no romance, prince smitten by a beautiful princess, but just a fun story with the magical elements of the original fairytale. We all enjoyed this story. The illustrations were adorable, and even though this was a short board book with simple text, it appealed to both the three year old and the six year old.

I'm back with another exciting Cinderella retelling, this time one for children who love both fairytales and dinosaurs! There was no question that I'd be picking up <em>Cinderella Rex</em> by Christy Webster and illustrated by Holly Hatam the moment I saw it. I pretty much try to read every Cinderella retelling I can get my hands on at this point. And I'm happy to report that <em>Cinderella Rex</em> was in no way a disappointment!

Featuring a young dinosaur living with her stepfamily who loves nothing more than to dance every chance she gets, <em>Cinderella Rex</em> pulls you right in. It follows all the typical Cinderella milestones, from her doing all the chores to her family refusing to allow her to go to the ball. In pops her Fairy-Triceratops to save the day and off she goes to dance the night away.

The prince becomes entranced by the amazing dancing skills of our very own Cinderella Rex, curfew demands she must leave, and we even get a nod to the big head / little arms joke that often comes about with tyrannosaurus rexes. And honestly? I loved every moment of this story. The illustrations were an adorable bonus, with bright colors and cute characters to keep any kid engaged.

While I'm not the biggest dinosaur lover, it did warm my heart to know that there is a story out there with a Cinderella dinosaur for all boys and girls to fall in love with.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

Adorable book with great illustrations that I believe all kids would love! It’s so much fun and has great personality that shines through. My preschool kids just loved it.