Plot Summary

             Everyone knows the folktale of Sootface, or Ashpet, or Vasilisa, or Cendrillon, or Cinderella, as most commonly known in the US and parts of Europe (Fleischman, Author’s Note): the story of a girl who works hard to overcome hardships, rivalry, and injustices and has a happily ever after.  There are thousands of versions of Cinderella that have changed over time and with its surroundings, but in Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman many of these versions are combined into a single story.  This book keeps the folklore qualities by echoing the spoken language of the ancestors from each culture the lines are drawn from.  The first written versions of the story were discovered in China from the ninth century; however, before this time the story was passed orally and it is impossible to find the original version, author, or date it was first told. 

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal follows the same basic outline as most versions of the tale.  A young girl loses her mother, her father remarries, and she gets mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters who are jealous of her beauty.  A magical being helps the girl by dressing her in beautiful clothing and footwear and getting her to a fancy event where a male in royalty is looking for a bride.  The man falls in love with the girl at the event, but she must leave by a certain time before the spell runs off.  As she dashes away she loses a piece of footwear and the man is devastated she ran away without letting him know who she was.  The man looks for the girl and identifies her by fitting the footwear to her foot and they get married.  The twist in Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal is every few lines follow the plot line from one of 17 different versions of the Cinderella folktale.    Though the versions are similar they differ in smaller details, such as what the type of footwear is, what is eaten at the wedding feast, who in royalty the girl marries, etc.

Textual Elements 

                Fleischman uses a variety of techniques to connect the different versions of Cinderella into one cohesive story.  Throughout the entire story, the ‘Cinderella’ character is referred to only as “the girl”.  By doing this, Fleishman avoids the different names the girl is called across the cultures.  The story also begins with ‘Once upon a time there lived a wealthy merchant whose wife had died,” (Fleischman, 1) which indicates it is a folktale and does not indicate a location or time frame (Galda, Cullinan, Sipe, 181).  A person who is not familiar with the basic story line may find it difficult to follow the story because Fleischman repeats a few details to the story.  For example, when the footwear appears on the girl’s feet the text says, “appeared a pair of glass slippers… diamond anklets… sandals of gold.”(Fleischman, 12).  Though the text is separated into different boxes between ‘…’ it may trick someone into thinking all three items appear on the girl’s foot.

Artistic Elements 

Julie Paschkis, the illustrator of Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal, helps the reader distinguish between the different cultural versions of Cinderella that are being combined in the story by using several different techniques.  The background of each page is filled to the edge with small drawings that include symbols, motifs, and cultural references from version on that page.  For example, in the Chinese version there is a magic fish as the fairy and fish are drawn in the background for every page of the Chinese version, as well as Chinese lanterns, rice, and traditional Chinese clothing.  Every time text from a specific culture’s version appears the same color is used for the background, such as yellow for Russia, red for China, and dark blue for Japan.   A small label of the country is also incorporated into the drawing to tell the reader what version they are reading on that page. 

All of the pictures in the book are drawn in the same style and display.  There are larger pictures on most of the pages of the book that are framed by a colored line.  Inside these frames, pictures illustrating the text are draw with an outline style, which simplifies the pictures (Galda, Cullinan, Sipe, 84).  The pictures are considered folk art because it simplifies reality and does so in a way that is traditional to the culture (Galda, Cullinan, Sipe, 83).   They represent the same version of the Cinderella story that is in the text on the page by changing the clothing, footwear, background, and even skin color to match the culture.   The colors used in all of the illustrations are bold and rich, which give the book an exciting and positive vibe (Galda, Cullinan, Sipe, 65).  The text is in boxes on the page that have a white background and colorful outline, which helps the text stand-out against the busy background.

          Contrasting these pages are the first and last pages of the story.  These do not have a colorful and detailed background, but are simply one picture in a frame with a white background. The text is on the page but is not in its own box.  The pictures are of a woman reading a book to a child, and the book has the same cover as this book, Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal.  The woman is sitting in a chair, and based upon this and other details in the picture it is supposed to be set in modern day.  The pages change in this way because the first and last pages are not meant to be part of the actual story.  The first page introduces the story by including “Once upon a time…” and the text on the last page is “… that people today are still telling the story,” (Fleischman).  This text is not culture specific, which is why there is no colorful background.  By looking at the pictures and reading the text, the reader can infer that the entire story is the woman and child are reading a Cinderella style book, and the ‘story within the story’ is the actual Cinderella story.

Analysis and Critique

                In Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal, the text and the illustrations are both necessary in order to tell a complete and comprehensive story.  The illustrations enhance the text by illustrating where each variant of the story is from.  Little of the author’s voice is displayed in the text because the text is drawn from different cultures and their versions of the Cinderella story. 

                Though this book is unlike any other version of Cinderella, it still has the same messages.  Good always overcomes evil is a large message portrayed in the book because even though the girl has to face many hardships and is not treated kindly by her stepfamily, she is the person who ‘wins’ in the end and is happiest.  Another message, as Rebecca Zerkin from the New York Times indicated, that can be found in the story is the belief in “protective natural forces, like the cow pouring honey from its horns (Russia), Godfather Snake offering rice (India) and the sparrows helping Cinderella with her chores (Germany)” (Zerkin).

                The book also has the same implicit messages as many versions of the Cinderella story.  One example of this is the step-mother and step-sisters.  They are evil and mistreat Cinderella by making her do all of the chores, calling her names, giving her little food, and taking her clothes and room.  This gives the impression that all step-mothers and step-sisters are mean.  Another implicit message is deals with the role of women in society and the concept of marriage.  The goal of Cinderella, her step-sisters, and the step-mother is to get married, which implies that the role of a woman is to get married and then she will be happy.  The king/prince/duke also based their decision for whom to marry on appearance alone.  This shows that inner beauty does not matter and women must be beautiful before they can get married.  Cinderella also isn’t considered to be beautiful until she gets beautiful clothing and footwear, which gives the message that you need beautiful items in order to be considered beautiful to society.  A final implicit message in the book is that if a couple has a big beautiful wedding, they will live happily ever after forever. 

Citation

Fleischman, Paul. Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella. Illus. Julie Paschkis. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007.

Galda, Cullinan, Sipe. Literature and the Child (7^th Edition).  California:Wadsworth Publishing, 2010. Chapters 3 & 5

Zerkin, Rebecca. "If the Shoe Fits." New York Times 11 Nov. 2007. New York Times. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/Zerkin-t.html>.