Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella: By Paul Fleischman

        The earliest story of Cinderella dates back to the ninth-century, a very very long time ago, and there are thought to be over 1,000 versions of the tale! In Paul Fleischman's "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" the reader is invited in to hear the classic children's fairy tale of Cinderella, with a global twist, as we immediately can guess from seeing the Earth on the title page. The story begins with a young girl sitting on her mother's lap, reading a book with a glass slipper on the cover. As we continue to read the cultures portrayed in each scene begin to transform, as if the storyteller changes and the tale travels to a new and exciting place. "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" is a story of patchwork genius, as Fleischman is able to weave together 17 different cultures to create one beautiful narrative of Cinderella.
       While it is very obvious that Fleischman is telling the familiar Cinderella story everyone enjoyed from their childhood, he surprised the reader with the turn of each page. We see Cinderella dressed in a beautiful Japanese kimono on one page heading off to ball, then as we flip to the next page we see her in French glass slippers, that transform to Indian diamonds anklets, then to Iraqi golden sandals, all within the span of two pages. Despite the fact that the story travels the globe bringing forth specific elements of differing cultures so rapidly, we still recognize the traditional Cinderella themes that are expected--good always beats evil, and love overcoming hate.
       With a text that spans so many cultures stuck in the confines of a picture book, we expect that images in the story may be disjointed, but thanks to the watercolor work of Julie Paschkis, this is definitely not the case. Paschkis illustrates the elements of each unique culture so that the reader can clearly see the differences, but maintains a consistent style of a two-toned patterned background, where each global location is written. The text on each page within each culture is framed in a box with a coordinating color, then written on a white background. This makes it possible for the reader to see the text without it getting lost in the vivid background. This same framing technique is also used when Paschkis adds a scene depiction, so again the image being shown is easily seen by the reader and does not fade into the background
      "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" takes us on a global journey of where the classic children's tale Cinderella has traveled, while providing vivid cultural images and details. I highly recommend "Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella" to young readers, probably for independent reading in grades 2-4. I also believe that this story would be very useful for teachers in upper-elementary and secondary schools because of its value in teaching about different cultures and the history of folktales and storytelling.

Picture Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/690483.Glass_Slipper_Gold_Sandal