LS 5623 Advanced Literature for Young Adults

Brucker, Meredith. 2002. ANKLET FOR A PRINCESS. Ill. by Youshan Tang. Fremont, CA: Shen's Books. ISBN 1885008201

Review:

In this Cinderella tale, Cinduri's father had more than one wife, but he and Cinduri's mother died during an epidemic, leaving Cinduri in the care of her father's second wife. Cinduri was left to take care of all the chores that kept the farm running. One day as Cinduri is fetching water, a great white snake with a bright read jewel on his head makes himself known to Cinduri. He feeds her and vows to make life easier for her from now on by adopting her as his God-daughter. Cinduri's stepmother notices the change in Cinduri ands makes her own daughter follow her one day to find out why. Lata, the stepsister, follows Cinduri, sees her with the snake, and reports back to her mother. Cinduri then returns home and tells her family that she has heard that the Crown Prince is coming to their village on the ninth night of the Navaratri Festival. The stepmother tells Cinduri she may not attend because she has no fine clothing to wear and too many chores to finish anyway.

Once her stepmother and sister leave for the festival, Cinduri races to tell the Godfather Snake what has happened. He gives her the jewel in his forehead and fine clothes to wear to the festival, including a pair of magnificent anklets decorated with tiny bells and diamonds. He tells her to go, but to return at midnight when the magic will be spent. At the festival, Cinduri catches the eye of the prince, but must rush away at midnight just as everyone gathers to light the lamp for the goddess Durga. She leaves behind one of the anklets. The next day the prince begins his search for her by having all the young maidens try on the anklet. The stepmother refuses to let Cinduri come along to try on the anklet, telling her she must finish the chores. After they leave, Cinduri pulls out the jewel from Godfather Snake's forehead and magically, all of her chores are completed. She rushes to town to try on the anklet. Once she does, she pulls out the matching anklet, proving to the prince that it was she who stole his heart. She and the prince get married and Cinduri brings the Godfather Snake to live in the gardens of their new palace.

This book is structure with the text of the story on one side of the page and the art on the opposite page. Occasionally there is quite a bit of text to go through on one page, so this book would work better for children on the older side of the picture book spectrum. Also children will need help with words foreign to our culture, such as aarti. The illustrations use mostly the characters clothing instead of scenery to depict the Indian culture, using bold colors in watercolor to create elaborate sari's and headdresses for each character. This book would be a good place to begin a discussion on Indian culture, but it should not be relied upon for a complete overview of the culture.

The bits of culture about life in India that can be learned from this book are:
   It is sometimes customary for men to take more than one wife,
   Snakes, instead of being reviled as beings of evil (such as in Adam and Eve), are look upon with respect,
  The jewel in the snake's forehead gives a very brief introduction to the concept of the all seeing third eye. (Lata runs home and says, " his big shining jewel was like a third eye that could look right inside me.")
  That there is a nine evening harvest festival called Navaratri, where the aarti lamp is lit on the ninth night to honor the goddess Durga.
  For the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom exhanged garlands of white jasmine instead of rings.


Reviews:
School Library Journal: "The emotional text is full of descriptive adjectives and bathed in cultural details."

Connections:
Have a discussion on the differences between common cultural ceremonies, such as a wedding.
Have children research geography and history of India.
*Other Cinderella stories:
De La Paz, Myrna J. Abadeha: The Phillipine Cinderella. 9781885008176
Climo, Shirley. The Korean Cinderella. 9780064433976
*Other stories about India
Somaiah, Rosemarie. Indian Children's Favourite Stories. 9780804836876
Nanji, Shenaaz. Indian Tales.  9781846860836









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