ISBN 0152007822 - Young childrens' books often suffer from a lack of variety, so finding one that's about the theater was a pleasant diversion from the usual pack. It's hard to say what age group this is most appropriate for, however.

The Night Owl Theater prepares to put on the play "Cinderella". There is a great deal of work to be done and a great number of people who work to make it happen. From the director to the lighting and sound engineers, with an entire list of people in between, everyone has a job to do. They audition, make sets, rehearse and more. Finally, it's opening night and they've got a full house as the curtain opens…

This oversized hardcover (9 1/4" x 11 1/4") looks, from the outside, to be appropriate for the 4 to 8 year old age group, an impression that's reinforced by the cartoon-y animal characters. The text, on the other hand, seems more suited to an older group that might not enjoy the childish illustrations. The number of characters that are introduced, the jobs they do and the vocabulary that is used to explain everything might be over the heads of very young readers, while the cute little-kid look of the book might put off older ones. Figuring out if the book is right for your child is your challenge!

The text, by author Ann Hayes, is a bit hurried, as she tries to fit a great deal of activity into little space on few pages. Throughout, Hayes uses theater terms that will be unfamiliar to most children and many adults. Thankfully, there's a two-page glossary of most of those words in the back of the book. Illustrator Karmen Thompson does a good job of putting much of the text into fun and colorful images that will help the reader along, too. Surprisingly, this book would probably serve as a useful educational tool (even though theater isn't part of the standard curriculum these days, there's nothing wrong - and a lot right - with broadening their horizons!) but is a bit of a boring, dry read as a storybook. There's no character development, very little in the way of dialogue and the only cool part of the book is the pair of gatefold pages that open to show a very abbreviated telling of the Cinderella tale.

- AnnaLovesBooks

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