PICTURE BOOK - The Girl With a Brave Heart: A Tale from Tehran by Rita Johanforuz

Illustrated by Vali Mintzi

2010, Barefoot Books, Cambridge, MA

avail in HC and paper - and at Bosler

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.37 - 112 ratings

My rating: 3

Endpapers- a solid muddy brown

1^st line/s: "On a quiet street in the city of Tehran lived a little girl called Shiraz."

My comments:  Another Cinderella Story - this time from Iran.  Shiraz lives in Tehran and loses a ball of yarn in a very strange woman's garden.  I would have loved a little more cultural "stuff" from Iran, but some of the illustrations give hints about this.  The title seems a little misleading, too, since they never talk - at all - about Shiraz being brave, only being loving and kind.  Excellent for comparing and contrasting several different Cinderella stories.

Goodreads:  After showing kindness to a strange old woman, Shiraz receives the gift of beauty but her lazy and unkind stepsister, Nargues, suffers a less pleasant fate in this adaptation of the Grimm's fairy tale, Mother Hulda, reset in Tehran, Iran.

Mirror Mirror - Marilyn Singer

A Book of Reversible Verse
Illustrated by Josee Masse
Dutton Children's Books, 2010
$16.99
32 pages
Rating: 5
Even the endpapers mirror each other - aqua and teal

Yes, yes, yes!
Superbly clever Marilyn Singer does it once more. What a marvel! She's written "reverso" poems - ones that make sense reading down...and then up! These are all based on fairy tales - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Ugly Duckling, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Rumplestiltskin, Princess and the Frog, Sleeping Beauty--all are cleverly versed forward and backwards.

Cinderella's Double Life

Isn't life unfair?
Stuck in a corner,
while they're waiting for a chance
with the prince,
dancing waltz after waltz,
at the ball,
I'll be shining
these shoes
till the clock strikes midnight.

Till the clock strikes midnight,
these shoes!
I'll be shining
at the ball,
dancing waltz after waltz
with the prince
while they're waiting for a chance,
stuck in a corner.
Isn't life unfair?

Words on one vertically-split page - twin verses on white and cream, with the same sort of separated illustration opposite. Beautifully done. You've got to see this for yourself!

There are some people in the blogosphere that HAVE tried these out themselves. There's a reverso poem that someone at A Year of Reading tried. This is NOT easy! And Check out the review and poem at Bookends. And for a real treat, check out 100 Scope Notes. From these you can stay up late and be inspired enough to possibly attempt one yourself.

If the Shoe Fits - Laura Whipple

Voices from Cinderella
Illustrated by Laura Beingessner
Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2002
$17.95
68 pages
Rating: pretty cool
Endpapers: Icy blue

Told in 33 different verse/poems, we hear the voices of Cinderella, her father's ghost, her stepmother, her cat, the king, the queen, and their son, (yup, that's the prince-) the stepsisters (which are poems in two voices), the ball guests (told in many voices), her "godmother", a rat, and even each lost shoe AND her feet - well, this would make a great reader's theater poduction for 17 or 18 kids. I was reminded of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (Schlitz) as I read. Many possibilities here. Here's how it starts:

Father's Ghost

Hear my voice first.
Blinded by a cunning woman,
I was the unfortunate fool
who set the stage
for the ashes and tears in this tale.

Left widowed
with a daughter,
my sweet Ella,
I remarried in a rush.
Rash move.
Reckless choice
for a new wife.

I planned to make amends
to my daughter,
but I fell from my horse.
A fast death.
No life. No remedy
then for my mistake.

What a fool to take
that woman into our lives;
a woman cruel,
uncaring at best.

I am only shadow now.
My poor Ella.
I cannot help her.
I cannot rest.

Great vocabulary. A pleasurable retelling of the most-commonly told Cinderella.

Illustrations accentuate the book, but don't dominate. I'd really like to try this aloud!

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal - Paul Fleischman

A Worldwide Cinderella
Illustrated by Julie Paschkis
Henry Holt & Co., 2007
$16.95
32 pgs.
Rating: 4,5
Endpapers: Aqua & avacodo world map showing 17 locations that are included in the story - bordered
Author's Note

I'm quite enamored of Paul Fleischman's work (I'm trying to forget that he wrote The Dunderheads), and this beautiful Cinderella does not disappoint. One of the reasons I love Fleischman's writing so much is that you never know exactly what to expect - he always has a clever take on things. Well, this Cinderella draws from 17 different countrys' adaptations of the story. So you'll be reading along, and get a page split into halves, or thirds, or quarters: And on the girl's feet appeared a pair of glass slippers (France)...diamond anklets (India)...sandals of gold (Iraq)....

The colors! The artwork! The book design! All my favorites are included, which make the visual enjoyment of this story even more wonderful. The fairly small amount of text is written in small white boxes that are framed by batik-looking backgrounds. Paschis uses designs and motifs from each of the various cultures that she's depicting. The illustration for each is placed in a rectangle above the text, and she includes as much information from the country as possible. The only thing that never changes is Cinderella's face.

Clever. Visual. A wonderful Cinderella. Read it after you've shared a few of the many, many available that tell the story from another culture's point of view.

Cinderella

I've been studying and collecting Cinderella stories for awhile now. Yesterday I read a really thought-provoking blog at Book Aunt. It's called How Cinderella Got Twittered. I went and pulled out all my copies of Cinderella and reread five or six of them. What IS the difference between a storybook and a picture book? It's time to start looking at some of the picture books I'm reading from a different angle. There is certainly a "place" for both in our kids' libraries.

In Search of Cinderella (Katharine Goodwin, Shen's Books, 2000) A Curriculum for the 21st Century includes a few pages of general Cinderella information and ideas (including "Creating Your Own Cinderella Tale") and specific activities for twelve different multicultural Cinderella picture books. This is a wonderful start for a Cinderella classroom investigation that includes some excellent ideas. I've found it very useful and interesting.

I've already reviewed Bubba the Cowboy Prince (Ketteman/Warhola), which is a male Cinderella in a cowboy/southwestern setting. It's a yeeha kind of fun.

And then there's the breathtaking Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal (Fleischman/Paschkis) which includes adaptations from 17 different cultures. Visually gorgeous.

If the Shoe Fits (Whipple/Beingessner) is Cinderella's story told in verse/poems in the voices of the characters in the story, including the main characters we know so well --- as well as the shoes, a rat, and even the dead father. The stepsisters and the ball guests are poems for more-than-one voice. Well done, a great reader's theater.

I'm off to find more....

Not a picture book, a YA dystopian/scifi take on it that's fun to compare:  Cinder (Marissa Meyer).

Bubba the Cowboy Prince - Helen Ketteman

A Fractured Texas Tale
Illustrated by James Warhola
Scholastic, 1997
Rating: 4

Bubba lives with his wicked StepDaddy and his hateful stepbrothers Dwayne and Milton. One day Miz Lurleen, who was purty and rich and owned the biggest spread around, decided to throw a ball to find herself a feller that was "cute as a cow's ear."

You know the story. This one is cute and the illustrations are really cute. And who was his "fairy godmother?" Well, let's see: "Now, Bubba figured he'd bonked the bejeebers out of his bean, 'cause the voice was coming from a cow. She chewed her cud for a moment, then said, "I'm your fairy god cow, and I can help you go to the ball."

Yee ha!

The illustrations are full page, edge-to-edge and give a whimsical old west feel.

Note: The illustrations include a lot of saguaros. I've become quite sensitive to this, living in the Sonoran Desert which is the only place in the world where saguaros grow naturally. They are NOT native to Texas, and won't be found in the wild there.....