The Rough Faced Girl

The Rough-Face Girlis an Algonquin Native American Cinderella Story.

The Rough Faced Girl is very similar and based on the same traditional tales as the Ojibwa tale, SootfaceI reviewed earlier.

This story takes place near Lake Ontario. The prince in this version is also an invisible warrior who will only marry the woman who can see him. A poor man in the village has three daughters. The youngest has become scarred from tending the fires and they cruelly taunt her calling her the roughed faced girl. The two oldest sisters demand their father make them presentable so they can take the sister's test to marry her invisible brother. He does so and both fail, as they are unable to see the warrior.

The Rough Faced Girl approaches her father for help in taking the test, but he has little left to offer after his older two have cleaned him out. She takes what he offers and heads off with a birch dress to meet the invisible warrior. The villagers are cruel, but beyond the village, she encounters great beauty. She is able to pass the sister's tests and is welcomed into the family. As with Sootface, she gains a sister along with a husband.

Ashpet An Appalachian Cinderella Tale

Ashpet: An Appalachian Taleis one of the more assertive Cinderella's I have reviewed recently.

Hired out as a serving girl to a widow with two selfish daughters, Ashpet follows the path of most Cinderella's. She works hard, yet is denied basic pleasures like attending a Church meeting. On the night before the meeting Ashpet it up preparing for the family to attend the service and the fire goes out. She is unable to visit a neighbor to get a starter fire. It is unclear why they cannot start their own. The widow’s daughters must visit Granny, a neighbor to bring fire home.

Granny expects her neighbors to be respectful and polite and when the girls are rude and refuse to help her, she refuses them fire. Even though Ashpet is needed for other chores, the Widow Hooper sends her to fetch the fire.

She politely asks for the fire and agrees to brush the old woman's hair in return for the fire. With the fire built, the Widow Hooper's family prepares for the service, leaving Ashpet home to tend to her chores. After the family leaves, Granny arrives at the door and with the tapping of her cane, the house is cleaned and Ashpet finds herself with a new dress and matching shoes.

With a warning from Granny to arrive home before midnight, Ashpet heads off to Church where she catches the eye of the Doctor's son. When she realizes it is getting late, she distracts the son, by leaving one of her red shoes and asking him to help her find it. As he sets off to find her shoe, she takes off for home, setting up the traditional Cinderella tale. This time it is intentional.

As with many Cinderella tales, the doctor's son does come looking for the girl with the shoe. The Widow tries to hide her, but a helpful bird makes sure that the couple is reunited.

That Awful Cinderella

Cinderella-Pov (Steck-Vaughn Point of View Stories)was one of the first Steck Vaughn Point of View books I encountered. I had been doing Fairy Tale trials for a while and I loved the idea of a series that incorporated similar ideas. I found nursery rhymes and fairy tales were a wonderful way to engage children in thinking about the other side of the argument. It works well for teaching compare and contrast and it helps develop early debating skills.

That being said this was not the strongest entry into the series. The stepmother in Seriously, Cinderella Is SO Annoying!: The Story of Cinderella as Told by the Wicked Stepmother (The Other Side of the Story)makes a convincing case that she never set out to hurt Cinderella. Sadly, in this version, the sisters make Cinderella's case with their complaints and insults towards her. I found it did open discussions about why the sisters were jealous and how a little effort could have provided them with a better outcome when Cinderella did marry the Prince.

The Egyptian Cinderella

I encountered the The Egyptian Cinderellafirst when doing a unit on multicultural Cinderella tales and then again when teaching a unit on Egypt to fourth graders.

The Egyptian Cinderella is different from most of the other traditional Cinderella tales in that it mixes some historical facts with the traditional Cinderella story. According to records, this story is supposed to be one of the older versions of the tale and it includes some historical facts about the main character Rhodopis and the Pharaoh Amasis she does marry. There is historical evidence to document that she was a Greek slave and that she did marry the Pharaoh. The rest is not documented and fictional.

In this Cinderella tale Rhodopis is a Greek slave who is bullied by the free Egyptian servants in the house she works. They tease her because her hair and skin are different than theirs. As with other Cinderella tales, when humans reject her, Rhodopis finds friends among the animals and dances to entertain them. This catches the attention of her master who rewards her talent with a pair of rose red slippers made from gold. This of course only leads to more resentment and jealousy from the other servants.

When the Pharaoh comes to visit, the servants force Rhodopis to stay behind to finish the chores. While she is working, a great falcon approaches. Rhodopis salutes the falcon as the symbol of Horus, but is horrified when the falcon steals one of the shoes she has put aside to keep them safe while she is washing at the bank of the river.

The falcon travels to Memphis where the Pharaoh Amasis is holding court. The falcon drops the slipper on his lap and he sees it as a sign from the God Horus and sets out to find the owner of the slipper. Thus the classic slipper search is born. As with all Cinderella stories only Rhodopis can fit the slipper and she marries the Pharaoh.