Think there's just one fairy tale with an overworked girl and wicked stepsisters? Think again! Cultures all around the world have their own Cinderella stories. Visit Canada, China, Egypt, and France, and find out whose glass slippers are made of red silk, and whose fairy godmother is a fish.

Contains more than 150 full length Cinderella tales and over 200 summaries of other variants from around the world.

Hace mucho tiempo—a long time ago—there lived a beautiful young woman named Adelita. So begins the age-old tale of a kindhearted young woman, her jealous stepmother, two hateful stepsisters, and a young man in search of a wife. The young man, Javier, falls madly in love with beautiful Adelita, but she disappears from his fiesta at midnight, leaving him with only one clue to her hidden identity: a beautiful rebozo—shawl. With the rebozo in place of a glass slipper, this favorite fairy tale takes a delightful twist. Tomie dePaola's exquisite paintings, filled with the folk art of Mexico, make this a Cinderella story like no other. Please note that the majority of this text is in English, with Spanish vocabulary throughout.

Engaging activities based on stories from China, Ireland, South Africa & beyond!

Told with beauty and grace, this Cinderella story from Ai-Ling Louie is brought vividly to life by Caldecott Medal-winner Ed Young’s soft, glowing illustrations. Half-starved and overworked by her stepmother, Yeh-Shen’s only friend is a fish with golden eyes. When the stepmother kills the fish for dinner, poor Yeh-Shen is left with only the bones. But the bones are filled with a powerful spirit. When Ye-Shen is forbidden to attend the annual spring Festival, the spirit grants her a gown of azure blue and delicate golden slippers. That night, everyone marvels at the beautiful, mysterious young woman at the ball. “Misty, jewel-like illustrations evoke the mythic past in this Chinese Cinderella story.” —Publishers Weekly

In this Mexican retelling of the Cinderella story, there is no glass slipper and no fairy godmother. All Domitila has are her innate qualities and talents, resulting in the transformation of Timoteo, her suitor.

From Algonquin Indian folklore comes one of the most haunting, powerful versions of the Cinderella tale ever told. In a village by the shores of Lake Ontario lived an invisible being. All the young women wanted to marry him because he was rich, powerful, and supposedly very handsome. But to marry the invisible being the women had to prove to his sister that they had seen him. And none had been able to get past the sister's stern, all-knowing gaze. Then came the Rough-Face girl, scarred from working by the fire. Could she succeed where her beautiful, cruel sisters had failed?