Taking bits and pieces of plot and descriptions from 17 different versions of the Cinderella story worldwide, Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman (Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices; HarperCollins, 1988) offers up a composite story, a melting pot of Cinderellas. The busy paneled paintings look like folk art stencils, and each one reflects its country of origin. Cinderella dresses in a sarong of gold (Indonesia), with a cloak of kingfisher feathers (China), and sandals of gold (Iraq). The man of her dreams is, alternately, a prince, a king, and even a magistrzate (Korea), all searching for the girl who fits the shoe.
Have a globe or world map handy after you read this most famous of fairy tales aloud to pinpoint each of the many countries identified in the illustrations. Pair it with a French version of the story, such as Barbara McClintock’s Cinderella, which is how we know it best. It’s fun to compare and contrast variations in the story, including the major characters (the girl, the boy, the fairy godmother), the setting, the plot, the motifs (the clothes, the transformations, the lost shoe, the party), the climax, and the resolution. For your own curiosity, you’ll find detailed abstracts of 345 Cinderella variants, dozens of reproductions of classic illustrations, and cover art of scores of children’s books of the story at the website Surlalune Fairy Tales. If the Shoe Fits: Voices from Cinderella by Laura Whipple, told in free verse, examines the story from each character's vantage point.
Themes: CINDERELLA STORIES. FAIRY TALES. MULTICULTURAL BOOKS—FOLKLORE. STEPMOTHERS—FOLKLORE.
- Beneath its handsome William Morris–like cover art, this inspired retelling blends many versions of Cinderella into a single, extraordinary tale.
- Publishers Weekly
Capitalizing on the frequently made assertion that Cinderella is the most widely told folktale on earth, Fleischman and Paschkis have created a pan-cultural, universally pleasing interweaving of variants from 17 distinct cultures.
- Miriam Lang Budin, School Library Journal
- Multicultural Cinderella anthologies already fill classroom shelves, but this worthy contribution from Fleischman, known for award-winning children's books like Seedfolks and Weslandia, cleverly reveals the overlapping elements of the stories by patching 17 versions together to make one cohesive narrative.
- Rebecca Zerkin, The New York Times
- So, the transitions from text to text are impeccable, the interracial/intercultural wedding scene is completely charming, and this work seems to hold hope for the revitalization of retold tales inpicture book form.
- Uma Krishnaswami, Children