Cinderella by Marcia Brown

Cinderella by Marcia Brown

Brown, M. (1954). Cinderella. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Traditional/Folk Literature; The Caldecott Medal

This book tells the French version of the magical story of Cinderella. Many young girls love the story of Cinderella, being familiar with the Disney version. When I hear this story, I think of when certain groups of people were oppressed by other groups. For example, African Americans were oppressed by White Americans and the people of India were oppressed by Great Britain. In this story, Cinderella was oppressed by her evil stepmother and stepsisters. She was treated like a servant instead of a loving family member, and never allowed to enjoy the finer things. However, in the end she was seen for her true beauty and attributes that were always hidden by her evil family members. This would be a great aspect to hit in the classroom, especially with the sense of certain groups formed within the classroom and school. What I mean by groups is the cheerleaders, the jocks, the nerds, and other stereotypical crowds students form in the classroom. This book could teach them that every person has a role to play in the classroom and they are all important. No group is inferior to the next.