Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella

For anyone who ever thought they'd seen enough of Cinderella, here's an offering that, in celebrating both its universality and specificity, makes the old tale new again.

The telling (framed by a mother reading to her daughter) needs introduction, but children old enough to understand the concept of one story transversing many lands will be fascinated.

K-Gr 4 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. This clever books reads nearly seamlessly and somehow manages to convey simultaneously the essential sameness of the story and the particularities of the different versions. Dressing for the royal shindig, our heroine, "]looked in her mother's sewing basket (Laos). Then she reached into the hole in the birch tree (Russia). Then a crocodile swam up to the surface and in its mouth was a sarong made of gold (Indonesia)]a cloak sewn of kingfisher feathers (China)]a kimono red as sunset (Japan)." Paschkis's backgrounds to the text and gouache illustrations alert readers to the shifts in locale by the use of color-coding and of folk-art design motifs drawn from each culture until the final scene where costumes, dances, music, and cuisines from across the globe convene at a wedding so wondrous "that people today are still telling the story." Endings don't get any happier than in this global tour de force.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Beneath its handsome William Morrislike cover art, this inspired retelling blends many versions of Cinderella into a single, extraordinary tale. As Newbery Medalist Fleischman's ("Joyful Noise") strong storytelling voice incorporates sometimes small details from different traditions, text and illustrations nimbly morph from one Cinderella story to the next, creating this brand-new version. Paschkis ("Yellow Elephant") makes use of folk art and textile patterns throughout the world in the clever background paintings behind each of her vibrant panel illustrations, and she helpfully and unobtrusively labels the country from which relevant borrowings originate. Generally, each page focuses on a single country's contributions, but even when details from several countries share a spread, visual harmony prevails and characters remain recognizable despite their costume changes. When Cinderella has nothing to wear, for example, a crocodile swam up to the surfaceand in its mouth was a sarong made of gold [Indonesia]... a cloak sewn of kingfisher feathers [China]... a kimono red as sunset [Japan]. Even the last line of text is patched from several sources: Such a wedding it was, and such an adoring couple [Iraq]... and such a wondrous turn of events [Korea]... that people today are still telling the story. Paschkis emphasizes the storyteller's voice by beginning and ending the narrative with illustrations of a mother reading to her daughtera daughter who, appropriately, looks much like Cinderella herself.Ages 5-up. "(Sept.)"

Copyright 2007 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.