Customer Reviews

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fleischman, Paul. Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella. Illustrated by Julie Paschkis. Henry Holt and Company. 2007.

This is a unique and lovely presentation of the Cinderella story that incorporates distinct elements from many different cultures into one cohesive version. The mean stepmother is first a nice widow who gives the Cinderella character various treats like "pan dulce and sugarcane. The beautiful double spread that accompanies this plot element is full of yellow folk art figures that are presented on a bright orange background and in the left corner, is the name of the culture that is represented, in this case Mexico. The daughter who is never named encourages her father to marry this nice woman but later she recalls her action and says, " I picked up the scorpion with my own hand", this insightful comment is part of the Iraqi Cinderella story. In a series of three panels, the story connects how a Russian cow gives the girl some honey, an Iranian fairy gives "her figs and apricots", and an Indian "Godfather Snake" gives her rice. The distinctive gouache illustrations blend harmoniously, often a richly colored inset stands out from a muted background that is filled with cultural symbols. The inside cover pages display landmass outlines with the locations of the countries that are represented, and an author's note not only mentions that the first Cinderella story likely appeared in "ninth-century China but also acknowledges his use of Judy Sierra's book, Cinderella (Oryx Press, 1992)." All libraries will want a copy of this innovative version of a universal tale. Recommended for ages 8 and up.

Both my 4 year year old son and myself loved this book! It takes the classic Cinderella story with a bit of a spin. It follows the basic, "dad marries the stepmother with two daughters and Cinderella's life becomes miserable until the end" but how it actually tells the story is what makes it unique. The artwork is bright and colorful. The background art does change as the focused upon country changes but it does so in a colorful way and has the country listed. It also does this with the food that Cinderella is deciding to eat, the animals she is caring for, or even the fashion she desires. That is unique in that you get to see a small sort of style portrayed through that part of the page. This book shows a part of Cinderella all over the world, not just here in the US, so it's unique to show a child that looks might change or food might change but in the end, we all want our happily ever after.

I was so excited to read this book, since we were assigned to read a multicultural Cinderella, and I was so disappointed! Instead of being seamless and incorporating all cultures, it was confusing, disjointed, jumping from one artifact, shoe, "fairy" to the next, never delivering a clear message of the Cinderella story.

When I had to analyze it for class, I was deeply frustrated by the lack of cohesiveness in the characters, background, timeline. It doesn't even include the "warning" or a resolution of the evil stepmother and stepsisters. I would not want to try to use this as a teaching tool, which was my purpose in reading it.

I thought this was a very interesting way to combine and tell the story by incorporating other cultural re-tellings. I especially loved the illustrations. :)

Everyone, everywhere, loves the classic fairytale "Cinderella." The idea to include versions from many cultures around the world in the retelling is very clever and the beautiful illustrations carry-out the idea perfectly.

This book has great artwork and it's neat to read through it and see cultural differences and similarities. I think I'm more interested in it than my 3 year old, but it's a great way to explore different cultures by a classic story of Cinderella that we all know and love

I loved it! The author and illustrator were able to blend the world's stories into a coherent whole. It is beautiful and it reminds us that we are all connected, even in our tales. I almost wanted to ask you to enter it in your listing of adult books along with the many children's books that appeal to adults.

One of my graduate school instructors recommended this book to my classmates and I as future educators. I thought that it was a beautiful book, wonderfully illustrated, and contains a positive message about global mentality and unity. While the story remains similar to the popular Disney version, it is an excellent tool to show children how such a story can be represented in all parts of the world. I loved it, and definitely look forward to reading it to my students and own children some day.

This book does not really compile stories of the various Cinderella versions around the world. The author has basically weaved together short excerpts taken from the various traditions and blended them together to form a narrative about Cinderella. Each short excerpt/story which is weaved into the main story is insufficient in allowing readers to gain any measure of insight into a particular tradition (even though it is stated which culture/country the particular excerpt is taken from).

I did not find this book to be an interesting or illuminating read. Instead, I would recommend readers searching for the various re-tellings of Cinderella stories across cultures to look up these stories individually:

Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella

Adelita

The Persian Cinderella

The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella Story

The Egyptian Cinderella

The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story

The Korean Cinderella (Trophy Picture Books)

There are many more titles to be read and each is rich in cultural descriptions and uniquely illustrated. I certainly found reading these titles to be a more rewarding and pleasurable read than this particular compilation.

this is the cinderella story, but each section of the story is taken from a different telling of cinderella from around the world. the idea's nice... but i don't think it worked out. instead of it being the story of cinderella it was a book saying that more than one country had the cinderella story... which is nice, but i'd prefer to have each of those stories told to me instead of having them all smushed together not being true to any of the stories but just delivering the general message they all share. each cinderella story is similar, but the story from each country does differ and therefore the stories are somewhat different, as each is being told through the eyes of a different culture and therefore places importance on different things. To me it feels like this story is trying to say 'we're all the same, all exactly the same' but i disagree with that, we're all different, and that's wonderful... so lets joyfully experience the difference instead of trying to make us all the same. needless to say i would have preferred a compilation of stories rather than smushing them all together and doing justice to none of them. i truly dislike this cardboard sense of multiculturalism and hope this author doesn't get his hands on any more like material.