Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India: By Lila Mehta, Adapted By Meredith Brucker

      "Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India" by Lila Mehta takes the fairytale of Cinderella and adds traditional Indian cultural elements into the mix. Cinduri is a young girl living with her horrible stepmother and her terrible stepsister, who make her work very hard doing all of the chores both in the house and on the farm, while they do none of the work. Cinduri, our Cinderella character (bet you couldn't have guessed that one!!), walks to a nearby lake everyday to bring back water, and one day while standing by the lake she meets a magical snake who says he is her Godfather Snake and vows to help her with her troubles and make her life easier. In Cinduri's town there is an annual Navarati Festival and this year a handsome young prince will attended, but her step mother tells her she cannot go until she completes all of her chores, which will certainly be impossible. But with the help of Godfather Snake, Cinduri's chores are magically finished, and he dresses her in a beautiful gold-threaded sari and sparkling diamond anklets with bells. At the festival Cinduri dances for the prince and quickly wins his heart; however, just as you would expect from a Cinderella tale, she has to leave without a real introduction when her magic runs out midnight, but loses a sparkling anklet on the way out. Cinduri and the prince are reunited the next day when he comes looking for the mysterious owner of the diamond anklet. The couple are married and Cinduri moves to a beautiful castle where she and her prince---live happily ever after!
        Lila Mehta's story "Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India" truly captures the beauty of traditional Indian culture and creates the Cinderella story you expect, with surprising cultural details. In the text we find elements such as a sari, the anklets, the magical jeweled snake, Cinduri's chore of carrying water on her head, and many other small elements that infuse the Indian culture throughout the story. But we really get a sense of the Indian culture through the watercolor images of Youshan Tang that depict numerous aspects of the traditional Indian culture using brightly colored full page bleeds that invite you to imagine Cinduri's life in India. Adding to the details of culture, each page containing text that is paired with a watercolor scene, also contains a small token from India that is relevant to the scene. This token is paired in the white backgrounded frame with the author's text and gives just a hint about what is being talked about, without taking attention away from the story written.
       Lila Mehta's story, coupled with Youshan Tang's artistic style help us as the reader to dive into the classic Cinderella fairytale and be met with a perfect dose of traditional Indian culture. I recommend this culturally diverse fairytale to children grades 1 through 3, as they will enjoy the story's Cinderella-like content and the vivid images. However, this book would also be great for teachers in upper-elementary and secondary schools who are teaching about how fairytales are shared among many different cultures on a global scale.

Picture Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/896430.Anklet_For_A_Princess?from_search=true&search_version=service