Cinderella

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Traditional/Folk Literature

Cinderella

by James Marshall

This book told the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. In this story, a young woman's mother dies and her father remarries. Her new stepmom and her two new stepsisters are very mean and rude to her. They take over the house and make Cinderella clean, sweep, cook, and sleep in the cinders. The stepmom and stepsisters order her around, call her names, and make fun of her. One night, the king held a ball for his son, the prince, to find him a wife. Cinderella spends all day helping her stepsisters get ready and they don't allow her to come with them. After they leave, a fairy godmother arrives and tells Cinderella she can go to the ball. The fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a coach, six mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and two lizards into footmen. Then she changes Cinderella's rags into a beautiful gown and puts glass slippers on her feet. The fairy godmother tells Cinderella she must be back before twelve o'clock because that is when everything will change back to normal. Cinderella goes to the ball and everyone wonders who the beautiful, mysterious woman is. Cinderella and the prince fall in love and dance all night long. Cinderella loses track of time and rushes out, losing her glass slipper on the way. Everything changes back and she goes home. The prince wants to find Cinderella and marry her but he doesn't know her name. He takes the glass slipper to every woman in the town to see who it fits. Finally, he comes to Cinderella's house and it fits. They get married and live happily ever after. I would use this story to teach my students about split families. Many families have single parents, stepparents, and stepbrothers and sisters. This is a good way to introduce children to it and also to help children who are in this situation to see that other people's families are like theirs too.