Egyptian Cinderella

Product Information

This Cinderella was born in a northern part of Greece and then kidnapped by pirates and taken to Egypt. The story itself is about a blond-haired, green-eyed girl who was captured as a slave from Greece and taken to Egypt. Rhodopis is Greek and the servants are Egyptian and the servants do not demonstrate tolerance for Rhodopis' differences. 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. In the classroom this would work best to compare and contrast other works of the story “Cinderella” and could be used to study the Egyptian culture, Greece could be studied, as well as, Greek culture.

The children also used this story as inspiration for an 'alternative fairytale' and re-wrote Jack and the Beanstalk using inspiration from this story.The book was written in 1991 and I was able to watch a read aloud of the book on youtube where the individual narrates the story and shows the accompanying images.

This would also be a good piece of literature to compare with other versions of Cinderella (compare and contrast differences). Still, the overall casting and the description of Rhodopis' coloring as "the most Egyptian of all" at the end of the story is something readers should be aware of. As I read it, I enjoyed making comparisons between this version and the more traditional version of the story. Her boss sees her dancing one night and decides to get her a pair of shiny, rose-gold sandals for her dainty feet.

She dropped out of college and took up her mother's work writing scripts for the weekly WGAR-Radio children's program Fairytale Theatre. The fairy-tale itself is (of course) fictional, although the story is based upon the life of an actual historical figure. This book can raise many questions which will be good to explore with chn during shared or guided reading. As a pharaoh holds court for all of his people, a falcon scoops up Rhodopis's slipper and takes it to the Pharaoh. The genre of the story is fairytale and the author provided an author’s note to describe a more detailed account of how this story is one of the oldest Cinderella stories.

Even as an adult reader I found myself wanting to know more about the Egyptian cultural through reading and I have a feeling our students would as well. Rhodopis, the Cinderella figure, is described as "red" and "rosy" (hence her name), because she burns under the Egyptian sun, but she is essentially a white heroine with brown bad guys. The idea that some peoples were innately more fit for servitude and enslavement goes back, not to the ancient world, but to the beginnings of the trans-Atlantic slave-trade - it was a philosophy dreamt up to justify that most unjustifiable and barbaric of practices. During her lifetime, she wrote 24 books including The Korean Cinderella; Magic and Mischief: Tales from Cornwall; A Treasury of Princesses: Princess Tales from Around the World; A Treasury of Mermaids: Mermaid Tales from Around the World; and Someone Saw a Spider: Spider Facts and Folktales.We build and maintain all our own systems, but we don’t charge for access, sell user information, or run ads. This story was first recorded by the Greek geographer Strabo in 64 or 63 BCE, and this tale might be the earliest ancestor of the Cinderella tale we are more familiar with today.

I don't think the book should be altogether avoided; after all, the Pharoah who she marries is also Egyptian. Teachers can have student predict what will happen next, and because the story is very familiar, students will have a chance to correctly predict what will happen. Additionally, folktales have usually been passed down through generations of a common people, while realistic fiction is created by one person's ideas. If nothing else, teachers should at least read this story with the intention of discussing the difference between a folktale and realistic fiction.

We understand that not everyone can donate right now, but if you can afford to contribute, we promise it will be put to good use. First we see that our main character is kidnapped from Greece and brought to work as a slave to a master that had 3 unruly servant girls. Given that this is so, I am particularly bemused to note the accusations of racism against the book on various sites online. The falcon drops the slipper into Amasis lap who sees it as a sign for the woman he should make his queen. The story takes on Cinderella from the Egyptian perspective rather than the more traditional approach.