Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper
by Marcia Brown
Picture book · ages 4–8 · grades K–3 · 1980
Why we'd hand it over
Marcia Brown's 1954 Caldecott winner (reissued 1980) is the gold standard—elegant, unsentimental illustrations and prose that honors the fairy tale without prettifying cruelty; kids feel the longing and the magic equally.