Cinderella
“Once upon a time….Happily ever after.” These are the words usually surrounding the stories we know as fairy tales. For there is no doubt in our minds when we read the words “One upon a time” that a certain kind of story will follow: a fairy tale. Why is this? What is a fairy tale exactly? Is it different from other kinds of stories? Where do fairy tales come from? Why are they called fairy tales anyway?
To help us define what a fairy tale is we are going to take a close look at one well-known tale, Cinderella. It seems like everyone knows that story. “Rages to riches” is a popular theme in movies, books, and television shows. Dreaming of winning the lottery, becoming a movie star, making millions in the stock market are all Cinderella dreams, aren’t they? We love to watch a Cinderella team move from the bottom of the league to win the pennant or to watch someone go from childhood poverty to become a multimillionaire music star. I think we all want to be Cinderellas!
While it may seem like Cinderella belongs to America, it actually comes from far away. In fact, the oldest Cinderella stories come from Asia and scholars have found hundreds of Cinderella takes from all over the world. We will be studying some of these variants as well as other offshoots of the tale. There will be picture book Cinderellas, video Cinderellas, movie Cinderellas, poetry Cinderellas, male and female Cinderellas, American Cinderellas, African Cinderellas, German Cinderellas, funny Cinderellas, sad Cinderellas, grim Cinderellas, silly Cinderellas, and many many more!
After you get to know all these other Cindies really well you are going to create a Cinderella story of your own!
May the shoe fit!
Adapted from Monica Edinger’s book, Using Beloved Classics to Deepen Reading Comprehension.
