While I read this book because of the illustrator, I wasn’t wild about the illustrations. I liked them but not enough to have sought them out.

I opened the book expecting an Egyptian girl, and was disappointed to see a lone, sunburned Greek heroine amid nameless Egyptians. It was like the story was saying she was the most deserving girl of all simply because she wasn't Egyptian like all the others, not necessarily because she was kinder than her peers. The illustrations are lovely, of course, but I couldn't get over the fact that they cast a Greek girl as the heroine in an Egyptian story, much as Hollywood enjoys casting American actors as the lone hero among unsympathetic foreigners. If teachers don't have time to create lessons for each school subject, they could at least incorporate this story into an ELA unit on comparing and contrasting stories. This lesson could begin with the teacher reading the classic Disney version of Cinderella to students. Then, this Egyptian version can be read to them, and students can compare and contrast the two, and discuss how the story changes when it takes place somewhere else. Students could also discuss whether or not the moral of the story remains the same between the two versions. To extend this lesson, students could read yet another version of Cinderella. There are at least 10 other versions (including Korean, Native American, and Italian) of Cinderella, each from different countries, so students could get into groups of 3-4, according to which version they want to choose, and then create a summary and analysis of the version they got. Each group can then present their summaries and findings to the whole class. I think that students will find it fascinating that one story can so different when different cultural elements are added. Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Old_pallet IA17106 Openlibrary_edition All the lessons follow in sequence and each lesson whether comprehension or grammar builds up to the long writing task, which is to write the opening of The Egyptian Cinderella. Scholastic shares that the The Egyptian Cinderella was a Notable 1989 Children’s Trade Books in Social Studies. I am glad I came across The Egyptian Cinderella, which is one of the oldest Cinderella Story as stated in the author’s note. I listened to this book on Youtube Read Alouds. Cinderella in the book is a slave and the “stepmother” role is a male slave master. Egyptian gods act as Cinderella’s fairy godmother. The plot is very similar to the traditional Cinderella story.

The learners’ can use their work from Day 1 to Day 7 and interweave it into the Long Write. Some lessons include a word bank to support EAL/SEN learners. This is an 8 day DIFFERENTIATED TEACHING POWERPOINT complete with a success criteria for each lesson, talk tasks, learner tasks as well as accompanying resources for the book, The Egyptian Cinderella. The lessons include comprehension and grammar based on the book and it is pitched at National Curriculum levels. All the lessons follow in sequence and each lesson whether comprehension or grammar builds up to the long writing task, which is to write the middle of the story, The Egyptian Cinderella.

The story then begins to follow the traditional story of Cinderella to some extent. The prince in this story is the Pharaoh Amasis and he hosts a gathering. While Rhodopis does not attend, a falcon steals one of her slippers and flies with it to the Pharaoh. He drops it into his lap and the Pharaoh then knows he wants to find the woman it belongs to. He took a trip to find her, and of course he is successful. While the servant girls try their hardest to convince the Pharaoh not to choose Rhodopis he did not listen to them. Anderson, Graham (2000). Fairytale in the Ancient World. Routledge. p.27. ISBN 978-0-415-23702-4 . Retrieved 25 March 2010.

I read this book too late to enjoy it. As a small girl, I would have just relished the familiar retelling of my all-time favorite fairy tale. But I read it as a junior classics student in college, the semester I was taking several classes on Egypt and how it was influenced by the Hellenistic period, no less. Therefore, I just couldn't read it without thinking about my lectures and readings on ancient Egyptian people and traditions slowly consumed by the historical forces of Alexander the Great and Greco-Roman colonization (I know, I'm really fun at parties : P). This Year 4 model text is a play script based on the story 'Egyptian Cinderella'. It has been written to meet the Year 4 expected standard and comes with a handy annotated version detailing the text-type specific features (red), grammar (green), punctuation (purple) and spelling (blue) teaching opportunities should you wish to use this text with your learners. Since this version of Cinderella is told from an Egyptian perspective, teachers could use that as an opportunity to create an interdisciplinary unit on Egypt. Egyptian history and culture can be covered during Social Studies, geometry of pyramids (and triangles) and logistics of the Egyptian economy could be discussed during Math, Egyptian plant life and embalming of mummies can be discussed during math, and ELA will involve the ideas discussed below. I *loved* this book as a child--I think partly because it was my first introduction to the idea that fairy tales can have different versions. Reading it to my kids as an adult, I still enjoy the story and the pictures, and I think it's interesting that Climo did some research and that the story apparently has some (small) basis in history. In this version of the story, the message is still the same, but it has so many different setting details that it almost seems like a new story. Readers will notice that Cinderella is still a poor servant girl who is made fun of by other girls in the house, but since it takes place during the time of slaves in Egypt, Cinderella is actually a slave herself, and her “evil Stepmother” is actually a male slave master. As the story goes on, I noticed that another main difference is that there is no “fairy godmother” to help Cinderella. Instead, Cinderella’s course is altered by various Egyptian gods. Additionally, characters in this story utilize reed boats on the Nile river to get around, rather than horse-drawn carriages.