Glass A Cinderella tale

Though her family is renowned throughout England for its glassmaking artistry, Bess Wickham craves reality and nature over crystalline perfection, in part due to her affinity for gardening and ability to speak with birds. When she discovers the dark secret behind her family's glass creations, she leaves home to dwell with her animal friends in the woods, where she slowly develops her magical talents. Meanwhile, newly orphaned Estrella, whose recently deceased grandfather worked at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, is sent to live with her distant cousins the Wickhams, who swiftly corral her into indentured servitude. Their fates drawn together by the Wickhams' cruelty and dark magic, Bess and Estrella's paths soon cross, with Bess acting as Estrella's magical benefactor. While fanciful and well constructed, the climax of this loose reimagining of "Cinderella" by Lasky (The Searchers) feels rushed, lending to uneven momentum and lowered stakes. Nevertheless, Lasky adds texture to the familiar elements and story beats by injecting intriguing new twists, such as the increased focus upon magical glass, as well as by recasting the relationship between Cinderella and her fairy godmother as one between two tweens seeking connection and independence. The protagonists read as white. Ages 8--12. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Book Group. (Aug.)

Cinderella and her fairy godmother both get new stories in this twist on the classic fairy tale. Fourteen-year-old Bess Wickham lives in a dazzling glass house, surrounded by a rainbow garden of glass flowers. The youngest of three daughters in a glassmaking family, Bess resents the expectation that she'll join them in creating sterile imitations of the natural world. She's delighted, then, when her father agrees to let her grow a garden. As it flourishes, she invites her animal friends to visit and pose for the figurines that her family hopes to create in their images. But when the creatures she loves start disappearing, Bess uncovers a sinister secret and flees into the forest, where she learns to access the ancient magic of the druids, claiming the Celtic title of bandia, or fairy godmother. Meanwhile, the Wickhams take in orphaned third cousin Estrella and manipulate her into servitude. Readers will shiver as the Wickhams find ever more wicked ways to capture life in glass. Soon, clever Estrella, who has a passion for astronomy, seems doomed. As abruptly as a carriage transforming back into a pumpkin at midnight, however, the story ends, with conflicts being resolved, secret identities revealed, and declarations of love unfolding in short order. The overly neat conclusion to a story that initially introduced appealing complexity to a familiar tale is disappointing. Main characters present white. Inventive, with intriguing heroines and despicable villains, but doesn't quite land the happy ending. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.