Author: Rafe Martin
Illustrator: David Shannon
Awards: none
Grade level: 1st-3rd
This is a book that has incorporated Indian traditions and values into a spin-off of Cinderella. In this story, there is an old village on the shores of a lake, and the book goes into great detail about how the village was decorated and how the huts looked. The story then talks about how a man has 3 daughters, and the 2 oldest daughters made the younger daughter tend to the fire, which caused her hands, face, and hair to become charred and burnt. The two older sisters teased the youngest, and told her she would never be able to marry the "invisible being", who could only be married by someone who actually saw him. At the end of the story, a "godmother" figure comes to the youngest daughter and tells her to bathe in a lake, which clears all her burns. She then sees the "invisible being" and is able to marry him. This book has aspects of historical fiction because it incorporates many of the aspects of Indian culture into the story.
I would definitely use this book in my classroom. It is a Cinderella story most children might know, but it also will teach children about Indian culture and how they used to live. I chose the age range between 1st-3rd grade because I believe it would be a good read-aloud for younger students, but older students would also be able to read this in a center. An idea for a unit in this class would be during a heritage week to show this book and talk about some aspects of Indian Heritage.
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