The Egyptian Cinderella

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Summary: Elementary School Teachers: Buy this book!
Review: Climo and Heller are a superb team. This is not only an excellent book for a children's comparative literature study on fairy tales, but also for examining ancient Egyptian art. Heller's work contains surprisingly accurate illustrations of ancient Egyptian decorative motifs and historical and cultural traditions. Students can compare Heller's work to the real thing and find many similarities, such as the lotus blossom architectural columns, the Pharaoh's crook and whip, the feather-patterned jewelry, the false beards worn by royalty, the distinctive combination side-view/frontal-view depiction of humans, etc. Climo's historical notes at the end of the book are fascinating. Her enchanting tale also provides a focal point for class discussions of racial prejudice. This is a gem of a book.

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Summary: Review of The Egyptian Cinderella
Review: I really liked this version of Cinderella. It would be a great book to use in elementary classes when reading different versions of a story. Also you could use it as an introduction to an Egyptian unit because there is some fact within this story. This story of how Rhodopis' red slipper was taken from the falcon, the god Horus. Little did she know the falcon was bringing the slipper to Amasis, the Pharaoh. When he saw the slipper he was determined to find who it belonged to and marry her. His long travels led him to Rhodopis... This version had some similaries to the original but I liked how there was some fact behind the story!

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Summary: WARNING!
Review: I was extremely disappointed in this book. I found it to be overtly racist. I had bought it to share with my grade 3/4 classroom as we are studying Ancient Egypt. I like to stretch the curriculum with literature, art, and more. Unfortunately, I did not read the book carefully before I bought it. When I did, I noticed immediately that the 'cinderella' heroine of the story had golden hair and fair skin while the evil, lazy, etc step-sisters had dark hair & skin. This was explicitly written and illustrated. This is a shame and so unnecessary. Obviously, Egypt is in northern Africa and while some tales of Cleopatra suggest that she may have been fair due to the Ptolemy's Greek lineage, I would suggest that most inhabitants of ancient egypt were of african, mediterranean, semitic, or arabic descent and dark-hued. I strongly recommend that you NOT buy this book.

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Summary: Racist? Step-sisters? Read the book!
Review: I'm surprised to hear this book described as racist. The inaccuracies in that review leave me to wonder whether the poster actually read the book.

The heroine's name, Rhodopis, referenced her sunburned skin. A real person may have inspired the fable, a light-skinned slave who married a Pharaoh.

The other girls were not step-sisters as the reviewer states, but servants. Rhodopis was a mere slave, making their unkind treatment of her more logical. Due to their rank in the Ancient Egyptian class system, she would be expected to do the less-desirable chores. For a lowly slave to be favored by their master would spawn jealousy and resentment. I don't recall any inference that their demeanor related to their skin color, and the reviewer overlooks the kindly Master and Pharaoh also being dark-skinned.

Such hotly-debated subjects a the race of Egyptians or of Cleopatra have no bearing on the story. Rhodopis is a Greek slave girl, and is neither described as Egyptian, nor called Cleopatra.

A good story with interesting historical references, it's a shame to see it dismissed as racist by a reviewer who clearly has overlooked many details of the book.

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Summary: Cinderella loved
Review: My Granddaughter loves this series. When she read this one, she said "I wish this was the real Cinderella story".

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Summary: Review of The Egyptian Cinderella
Review: My kids really liked this one. We had been talking about Egypt and they loved hearing this version of the story. There's no fairy godmother, but the god Horus intervenes in the form of a falcon. And there's even a happy ending. I liked the historical fact at the end of the book.

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Summary: a great childrens book
Review: this book is great if you have children. the story is not like the original cinderella but it is still a good book. ruth heller did a great job on the illustrations. if you have children you will want to buy this book.