Traditional Literature: Three Cinderellas

Most people are familiar with the Cinderella story as told in the translation by Marcia Brown. There are also cultural and parodied versions of this tale. For a cultural version, I will be referring to Sootface, an Ojibwa tale retold by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by Daniel San Souci (San Souci, 1994). The parody I've chosen is "Cinderumpelstiltskin", found in the book The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith (Scieszka, 1992). All three renditions are picture storybooks, and have similarities in the cast of characters and in the motifs of transformation and magic, but there are significant differences within those similar themes.

The three stories have honored illustrators in common. Brown's Cinderella earned a Caldecott Medal, while Scieszka's The Stinky Cheese Man won a Caldecott Honor award. Daniel San Souci, the illustrator of Sootface, did not get an award for this book, but has won several awards for his other work. As for the illustrations themselves, they vary widely. Since Brown translated the original from Charles Perrault, she chose to illustrate the story with details from French court life in the late seventeenth century. The pictures are drawn with a light hand, in pen and ink and four color gouache. For Sootface, Daniel San Souci used watercolors in rich forest hues. Like Brown, he researched the setting for the story and included details true to the life of the Ojibwa tribe in the mid eighteenth century. Lane's illustration for "Cinderumpelstiltskin" stands apart from the first two in many ways. There is only one picture for the one-page story. The only common character shown is Cinderella; the author melds Cinderella's story with Jac...

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...d on cultural perspectives and purpose. The cultural renditions are stand-alone stories. They can be enjoyed and understood without ever reading a Cinderella story from another culture. The humor in the parody, however, would be lost if the reader wasn't familiar with the original fairytale on which it is based--or in this case, two fairytales. Discussing differing renditions of fairytales is a wonderful way to introduce students to comparing and contrasting literature and help them learn how similar different cultures can be.

Works Cited

Brown, M. (1954). Cinderella or the little glass slipper. New York: Alladin Paperbacks.

San Souci, R. D. (1994). Sootface, an ojibwa cinderella story. New York: Dragonfly Books.

Scieszka, J. (1992). Cinderumpelstiltskin. In J. Scieszka, The stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid tales (pp. 28-29). New York: Viking.