ALA Booklist (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)

With a yee-haw and a do-si-do, the everlasting Cinderella story blooms again. Cindy Ellen's stepmother is the orneriest woman west of the Mississippi, and her two daughters are just as mean. Cindy Ellen is kept from the rodeo and square dance, but then her fairy godmother appears with a golden six-gun, and points out that Cindy needs some gumption before anything else. So off she goes with diamond spurs on her little boots. She rides the bucking bronco and steals the heart of one Joe Prince. The next night at the square dance she and Joe dance the night away, with the usual midnight foofaraw. But Joe tracks her with the mate to the diamond spur, and they get hitched and live happily ever after in a ranch house full of love and rodeo trophies. The nasty sisters marry city slickers. The smooth, hard-edged illustrations lack personality, despite Cindy Ellen's many freckles; the fairy godmother has the most spirit, in her huge sombrero and red-fringed gloves. (Reviewed May 15, 2000)

Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)

Wielding a golden pistol, Cindy Ellen's fairy godmother not only conjures up riding clothes and diamond-studded spurs for Cindy, she gives her gumption, and Cindy outrides everyone at the rodeo, winning the heart of the cattle king's son. Expressive regional turns of phrase and exuberant full-color comic illustrations in skewed perspectives place the action squarely in the dry desert of the West.

Kirkus Reviews

From the author of The Bootmaker and the Elves (1997), another ripsnortin' Western take on a traditional fairy tale. Thanks to a spirited fairy godmother who gets all the best lines—" Remember, there ain't no horse that can't be rode, and there ain't no man that can't be throwed!' "—Cindy Ellen does make the local cattle baron's rodeo and follow-up square dance, proves herself a roping, riding champion, and ultimately hitches up with the rancher's son Joe Prince. Manning tricks out her characters in dazzling modern cowboy dress, and gives Cindy Ellen a big grin, a flowing mane of honey-colored hair, and diamond-studded stirrups instead of glass slippers. The stepsisters get off lightly, moving away to marry city slickers rather than mutilating themselves as in the Brothers Grimm version. Bright, stylish, and with a boosterish concluding note on women in rodeo. (Picture book/fairy tale. 7-9)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

"Savory slang adds punch to this tale, which stresses the fairy godmother's message that 'magic is plumb worthless without gumption.' Illustrations lush with cactus-flower colors and pale maize gold enhance this rawhide-and-lace fantasy," said <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW. Ages 4-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Dec.)

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-Lowell has set another classic tale in a Wild West setting. Cindy Ellen was a rancher's daughter who had a "snaky old stepmother" and two stepsisters who "never did a lick of work all day." She also had lots of gumption and, with the help of some magic and a diamond spur, she "got hitched and lived happily ever after in a ranch house full of love and rodeo trophies." The characters and dialogue are fresh, but remain true to the spirit of the tale, from the fairy godmother with her magic pistols to Joe Prince, a rich rancher's handsome son whom Cindy beats in the rodeo competition one day and charms at the square dance the next evening. The heroine is the very picture of spirited sweetness, with auburn hair, a "daredevil grin," and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. The text is lengthy for a picture book, but is told in language as lively, colorful, and detailed as the watercolor illustrations, and is a delight to read aloud. An abundance of action combined with humor and high-spirited hyperbole make this a rip-roaring rendition that will hold children's attention all the way to the satisfying, though expected, conclusion. Round up some listeners and have a ball!-Starr LaTronica, Four County Library System, Vestal, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.