 Original print cover | |
| Author | David Henry Wilson |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fairy tale, Fiction |
| Publisher | Robinson |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 171 pp (Hardcover edition) |
The Coachman Rat is an alternative account of the classic fairy tale Cinderella. [1] It was published in 1989 and written by children's author David Henry Wilson.
The narrative follows the life of Robert, the rat that was transformed into the coachman on that fateful night when Amadea (Cinderella) fell in love with Prince Charming. The majority of the novel is an account of the aftermath of that night, as Robert was transformed back into a rat at midnight of that night—yet retained the ability to speak; he then began a quest to find Mara, the "woman of light" (or Fairy Godmother) in order to become permanently human. [2]
Kirkus called it "clever" and "well-handled" but "obvious". [3] Pauline Morgan (for the Science Fiction Research Association Newsletter) found it "an allegory for the twentieth century" with the talking rat a curiosity and an outcast. [4] It was also reviewed by Library Journal, which found it a "highly recommended" but somber portrait of "Europe on the verge of the Enlightenment", [1] and by Locus . [5]
"Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world. The protagonist is a young girl living in forsaken circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune, with her ascension to the throne via marriage. The story of Rhodopis, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between 7 BC and 23 AD, about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt, is usually considered to be the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story.
Kinuko Yamabe Craft is a Japanese-born American painter, illustrator and fantasy artist.
Marguerite Henry was an American writer of children's books, writing fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals. She won the Newbery Medal for King of the Wind, a 1948 book about horses, and she was a runner-up for two others. One of the latter, Misty of Chincoteague (1947), was the basis for several related titles and the 1961 movie Misty.
Jan Brett is an American illustrator and writer of children's picture books. Her colorful, detailed depictions of a wide variety of animals and human cultures range from Scandinavia to Africa. Her titles include The Mitten, The Hat, and Gingerbread Baby. She has adapted or retold traditional stories such as the Gingerbread Man and Goldilocks and has illustrated classics such as "The Owl and the Pussycat."
Jennifer Donnelly is an American writer best known for the young adult historical novel A Northern Light.
David Henry Wilson is an English writer. As an author he is best known for his children's stories such as the Jeremy James series. Wilson has also had a number of plays produced in the United Kingdom, both for children and adults. He is also the author of The Coachman Rat (1989), a satirical novel based on the Cinderella story.
Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper is a book adapted and illustrated by Marcia Brown. Released by Charles Scribner's Sons, the book is a retelling of the story of Cinderella as written by Charles Perrault, and was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1955. The book takes place in France, in a palace similar to other Cinderella stories.
The Graveyard Book is a young adult novel written by the English author Neil Gaiman, simultaneously published in Britain and America in 2008. The Graveyard Book traces the story of the boy Nobody "Bod" Owens who is adopted and reared by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered.
Ash is a young adult fantasy children's novel by Malinda Lo first published in 2009. It is a reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale that reimagines the title character, Ash, as a lesbian teenager. The novel centers around the familiar story of Cinderella, her father recently remarried, and lamenting the misery of her new life with stepsisters and a stepmother. The twist arrives when Ash falls in love with the King's respected huntress Kaisa, after she has made a commitment to dark fairy prince Sidhean.
Théâtre Illuminata is a young adult fantasy trilogy by Lisa Mantchev. The books are Eyes Like Stars (2009), Perchance To Dream (2010) and So Silver Bright (2011). Eyes Like Stars was nominated for the 2009 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy and the 2010 Mythopoeic Award for Children's Literature.
Tessa Dare is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling American historical romance novelist. She has authored fifteen novels and novellas and created five different series. In 2012, she won the Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Regency Historical Romance for her book A Night to Surrender.
Marlon James is a Jamaican writer. He is the author of five novels: John Crow's Devil (2005), The Book of Night Women (2009), A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), which won him the 2015 Man Booker Prize, Black Leopard, Red Wolf (2019), and Moon Witch, Spider King (2022). Now living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the U.S., James teaches literature at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also a faculty lecturer at St. Francis College's Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing.
Heckedy Peg is a 1987 children's picture book by Audrey Wood. It is about seven children, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, who are transformed into food by a witch. The children are then taken to the witch's cave and are eventually rescued by their mother. In order to rescue her children, the mother pretends to cut off her feet at the witch's request. She then enters the cave and identifies which food item each of her children have been turned into.
Kate, the Cat and the Moon is a 2004 Children's picture book by David Almond and Stephen Lambert. It is about a girl, Kate, and her nighttime adventures with a feline companion when she transforms into a cat.
Anna-Marie McLemore is a Mexican-American author of young adult fiction magical realism, best known for their Stonewall Honor-winning novel When the Moon Was Ours, Wild Beauty, and The Weight of Feathers.
Ruthanna Emrys is an American science fiction and fantasy writer best known for The Innsmouth Legacy series: The Litany of Earth, Winter Tide, and Deep Roots.
Ron Weighell was a British writer of fiction in the supernatural, fantasy and horror genre, whose work was published in the U.K., the U.S.A., Canada, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Finland, Belgium and Mexico. His stories were included in over fifty anthologies and published in six volumes containing his own work exclusively. Weighell is listed as an author in the online Bibliothèque Nationale de France, with a selected bibliography. A short biography and limited bibliography are available in the goodreads.com website. A more extensive bibliography of his published work is available in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Weighell died on 24 December 2020, some weeks after suffering a stroke. Obituaries have been published by the Fortean Times magazine, the newsletter of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and Locus Magazine.
Long Black Curl is an urban fantasy novel by American writer Alex Bledsoe, first published in the United States in May 2015 by Tor Books. It is the third in a series of six books by Bledsoe about the Tufa living in a remote Appalachian valley in East Tennessee. The Tufa are descendants of Irish fairies and were found in the area when the first European settlers arrived.
The House with Chicken Legs is a 2018 middle-grade fantasy novel by Sophie Anderson, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli. Inspired by traditional Baba Yaga tales, the novel follows a young girl, Marinka, who lives with her grandmother in a magical, sentient house, traveling the world while her grandmother helps support and guide newly deceased people to the afterlife.
