By Savior Pirotta and Alan Marks
North Mankato, MN: Sea to Sea Publications (2007)
Every culture tells fairy tales a little bit differently, and these differences reveal the values and beliefs of that nation. In this Ancient Egyptian tale of what we can recognize as a Cinderella story, these differences seem to be a little shallow. At the very beginning we are introduced to a young Greek girl named Rhodopis, a graceful and elegant dancer. One day, she was dancing on the shore and was kidnapped by Egyptian pirates. When they reached land, she was sold as a slave to a Greek master and was forced to work with three Egyptian slaves, who made Rhodopis do all of their work because they were afraid she would be their master's favorite. Despite this, he did bring her home a beautiful gift: golden slippers. The other slaves were jealous and, when word came that the Pharaoh was looking for a wife, they tricked her. While they traveled to the Pharaoh, she was forced to stay behind and do the cleaning. Then, even worse, a falcon swooped in and stole one of her slippers! It flew all the way to the Pharaoh and dropped it on his lap; the Pharaoh took it as a sign and proclaimed that whichever girl fit into the slipper would be his wife. From here, the story is familiar: the Pharaoh travels the land and, despite the slaves' attempts to hide Rhodopis from him, the truth comes out and she becomes queen, living happily ever after.
Although there are aspects of this tale which could inform children's knowledge of Egyptian culture, overall the text and drawings don't connect. The cover illustration is taken from the climax of the story, when the falcon flies off with Rhodopis's golden slipper, which gives away a crucial part of the story from the first glance. The illustrations in the story are very expressive: the three jealous slaves always look mad or mischievous, Rhodopis looks appropriately happy or sad, and the pirates at the beginning look tough and scary. Beyond that, however, I think they fall short. In a story about Ancient Egypt, I had some high expectations: much has been discovered about Egyptian writings, drawings, and traditions that could be worked into the illustrations. I was disappointed to find almost nothing Egyptian at all about the style except for the Pharaoh's distinctive crown and the three slaves' long black hair and heavy makeup. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to inform the readers about the rich history and culture of the Ancient Egyptians.
One thing that I did like about this book, however, is that it put the well-known version of Cinderella right after the Egyptian one. This would help young readers to see the connections between the tale they know from Disney and a tale they may not have heard before.
To sum it all up, while the story itself is enjoyable, if predictable, it reveals almost nothing about the culture from which it came. The drawings are pretty but are not specific to the Egyptian culture, leaving the viewer/reader feeling like something big is missing from the tale, regardless of its happy ending.
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