Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (Amistad)

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Summary: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters
Review: This is a beautifully written and illustrated African Cinderella story. As a third grade teacher, it is excellent for teaching about folktales and a vehicle for teaching compare and contrast. It also introduces young children to African-based literature and can be a jumping off point for the similarities between cultures as it can be compared to the standard Cinderella story or the vast number of other Cinderella stories from other cultures.

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Summary: a beautiful African folk tale
Review: This story is based on an African tale that is similar in nature to Cinderella. In this story a man named Mufaro had two beautiful daughters, one named Manyara, and one named Nyasha. Manyara is rude to Nyasha, who just calmly bears it. When a call comes saying the Great King wants a wife, Mufaro plans to take his daughters to the palace the next day. Manyara decides to leave in the night to make she is chosen to be Queen. During the journey she is rude to a number of people, who turn out to be the King himself, shape-shifted into those forms as well as the form of a garden snake well-known to Nyasha. When Nyasha passes the next day, she is kind where her sister was rude. Needless to say the King picks Nyasha, and they live happily.

The story is told well, and the language used is wonderful, though not quite as wonderful as the illustrations. They almost look more life-like than photographs. The way lighting is used is amazing, and they are just stunning pictures. Everything about this book is wonderful, with nothing to detract from it.

Loggie-log-log-log

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Summary: A fascinating twist to a familiar Cinderella tale
Review: What happens when you mix two beautiful daughters, one handsome prince, and a marriage proposal? Well, if one is selfish, self-centered, and spoiled, and the other is kind, loving, and sweet, then you get the heartwarming fairytale by John Steptoe, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. He credits an Afrcan folktale with inspiring htis original version of a Cinderella-esque story. Steptoe's illustrations compliment the tale at every turn, defining setting, expanding characteriaztion, and adding depth to the text; they are indeed worthy of the Caldecott Honor Book Medal which graces the cover. Pages of stunning paintings capture the very essence of the story's Zimbabwean ancestors and the landscape they inhabited. In this typical fast-paced fairytale where evil is punished and good is rewarded, readers meet Manyara and Nyasha, two sisters of unsurpassable beauty, who are summonded to the city in order to appear before the unmarried prince. Little girls everywhere will identify with the kind and patient Nyasha and delight at the fate that the "evil" sister, Manyara, eventually meets. Children of all ages will thoroughly enjoy a read-aloud of this fairytale. The vivid use of language and exquisite illustrations, such as the scene in which Nyasha meets the king, are sure to entertain even the most discriminating audience, from the youngest listener to the transitional reader. Complete with a surprise ending, a touch of magic, and a moral message, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is a wonderful story and makes and excellent comparison to more traditional versions of Cinderella.