Elegant paintings of a cavernous castle and an enchanted countryside distinguish this retelling of the transformed maiden. Ages 5-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(May)

Reviewed with Madame D'Aulnoy's Beauty and the Beast.Gr. 9-12. High-school art students are the likely audience for these handsome new picture-book editions. The mostly straightforward text veers into the archaic and convoluted in parts: Cinderella, would you not be glad to go to the ball? ask the stepsisters. You only jeer me; it is not for such as I am to go thither, she replies. It is both volumes' artwork that is noteworthy. Roberto Innocenti sets Cinderella in the 1920s, illustrating the clothes, cars, households, and boozy decadence of the era in intricate spreads. High-school students reading The Great Gatsby or looking for visual representations of the flapper era will pore over these pages. Etienne Delessert's Beauty takes a more symbolic approach. A fairly representational blond Beauty and Georgia O'Keefe-like flowers blend with startling compositions of abstracted claws and toothy snouts representing the beast. For older design students, both titles offer intriguing examples of how such familiar material can be visually reinterpreted.

PLB 0-7358-1052-4 Cinderella (32 pp.; $15.95, PLB $15.88; Apr.; 0-7358-1051-6, PLB 0-7358-1052-4): Perrault's ancient tale of Cinderella has been slimmed and toned down considerably, with her virtues less evident and the supporting cast less effective. <p>PLB 0-7358-1052-4 Cinderella (32 pp.; $15.95, PLB $15.88; Apr.; 0-7358-1051-6, PLB 0-7358-1052-4): Perrault's ancient tale of Cinderella has been slimmed and toned down considerably, with her virtues less evident and the supporting cast less effective. Readers will wonder why Cinderella's father, who is not conveniently dead in this story, doesn't rally to her aid, but they will be otherwise enchanted by Koopmans's delicate illustrations. One good French touch comes at dinner; the prince is so besotted that "even when the most delicious dishes were served for supper, he could not eat a morsel." (Picture book/folklore. 5-8) </p>

Gr 2-4 Lovely marbled endpapers introduce yet another ``Cinderella.'' Goode's translation informalizes the text somewhat, losing the sense of a time long ago and a place far away. However, the plot remains intact, including the moral venerating innner beauty, which would have had more impact if Goode's Cinderella, soon to become Princess, didn't look so smug in the last two illustrations. The illustrations, set in 17th-Century France, contain all of the elements necessary for a successful Cinderella. Her ballgown is beautiful, lusher and more spectacular than her stepsisters' or the other guests. The transformation scenes, especially the lizard into footman, are visually satisfying. The bright watercolors add the proper sparkle, and attention is not drawn away from the main characters by distracting borders or designs. Young readers will be pleased with this edition (especially if it is accompanied by the cassette recorded by Jessica Lange), but scholars will continue to prefer Dore (Perrault's Fairy Tales Dover, 1969) or Le Cain (Cinderella: or, the Little Glass Slipper Penguin, 1977). Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public Library

Innocenti's Cinderella is set in 1920s London and features brown-toned retro illustrations with clever details; Delessert's Beauty is dreamlike and psychologically suggestive, with illustrations of pudgy beast-headed birds and recurring beast silhouettes. These new editions are covered in high-quality paper and employ luxurious art treatment; the pages are text-heavy, but the old tellings have charm.