The Persian Cinderella

The book tells the tale of Settareh, the Persian Cinderella. Magic enables Settareh to outsmart two jealous stepsisters and win the heart of a prince. I liked how the author by changing the setting, the author changes how the characters live, what they value, and how they solve problems. The

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illustrator does a good job using vibrant color that echo the ancient land.

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The Persian Cinderella is like the slave in the house of all of her sisters and stepmother. She gets a beautiful dress from a magic jar and the prince finds her through her anklet. The sisters get jealous and curse her but the prince breaks it and they live happily ever after.

Authentic ancient Persian artwork and cultural elements are used to tell the Cinderella story. This story is based on a story from the Arabian Nights. Colorful illustrations that are full of life.

This would be great to use in a fairy tale unit and compare it to other variations.

This Cinderella story takes place in a harem. In the end it is the prince's mother who does the bride seeking.

The book tells the tale of Settareh, the Persian Cinderella. Magic enables Settareh to outsmart two jealous stepsisters and win the heart of a prince. I liked how the author by changing the setting, the author changes how the characters live, what they value, and how they solve problems.

A Persian version of the Cinderella fairy tale, where the godmother is a genie in a lamp and the wicked stepsisters bewitch prickly hairpins that turn the protagonist into a bird. Great for a unit about Cinderella around the world, though the illustrations make the book look a little dated.

"The Persian Cinderella" as written by Shirley Climo captures the rich traditions of the Persians and the colorful illustrations by artist Robert Florczak are vivid and beautiful. The author provides fascinating insights into the Persian culture of old, e.g. the separate living quarters for men and

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women, the celebration of the No Ruz festival, and also the elaborate costumes worn by the people, especially during important celebrations. This is a wonderful addition to the Cinderella lore.

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Settarehʼs mother dies shortly after her birth, leaving her alone in her fatherʼs quarters. She is mistreated by the other women in her fatherʼs house. Her father announces that Prince Mehrdad is holding a ball at the palace and gives each daughter money to buy a dress. Settareh spend her money

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on food, gives some away, and buys a small jar with a pari inside. The pari grants her wishes, including a very nice outfit for the ball. The Prince sees her outside of the ball on the street and is entranced. When Settareh leaves the ball, one of her diamond bracelets falls off of her ankle. The Prince wonders whose bracelet it could be. The Princeʼs mother goes throughout the town to find the own. Settareh reveals herself as the owner. The bracelet fits no one else. The prince and Settareh are to marry when her stepsisters cause her to turn into a dove with enchanted hairpins. She is united with her prince and they marry. This would be useful as a classroom read around.

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The cinderella story in the view of Persian culture. The art is almost like the people in the story walking off the page. The story goes pretty much along with the tale of Cinderella.

Shirley Climo does a wonderful job in telling the Persian equivalent of Cinderella. The illustrations by Florcazk are detailed and full of motion that carry the text. The Persian Cinderella mirrors other Cinderella tales closely with a few variations that make it unique.

You can do a section of different cinderella stories from different countries. Showing that each country can have a common story with different details.

The Persia Cinderella puts a twist to the Cinderella that most Americans know. The basic concepts are the same, yet some things are significantly different. This is intended for intermediate elementary grades and would be good to do a compare and contrast to other Cinderella stories.

I would highly recommend this book for younger children, and I think it would be a great addition to the classroom. I really like that this book incorporates another culture into a very familiar tale. I think it is really important for children to have exposure to other cultures, and this is a

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delightful way to introduce that.

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The Persian Cinderella takes a different look on the fairy tale of Cinderella, from a different cultural stance. Some things are different in the story which makes for good comparisons when talking about it with students. This is a great book for intermediate elementary grade students.

A good story for a girl or buy who enjoys princess stories, the Persian Cinderella is fortunate because of her kindness to others.

Motherless Settareh, so named because of the star-shaped birthmark on her cheek ("Settareh" meaning "star" in Persian), grows up in the women's quarters of her father's house, alternately ignored or harassed by her stepmother, stepsisters, aunts, and female cousins. Given a gold coin by her father,

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in order to buy new clothes for Prince Mehrdad's upcoming No Ruz (New Year) celebration, Settareh instead gives most of her holiday money to a beggar, using what little is left to buy an cracked old bottle. Her kinswomen are convinced that, contrary to her father's instruction, she has not chosen wisely. But the pari - a magical fairy - residing in her bottle proves differently, producing gorgeous clothing that allows Settareh to attend the No Ruz celebration after all...

As mentioned in my review of Shirley Climo's The Korean Cinderella, another of her four Cinderella retellings (see also: The Egyptian Cinderella and The Irish Cinderlad), I find the titles used for these books, including The Persian Cinderella, rather problematic. This tale, after all, is no more "the Persian Cinderella" than Cinderella is "the French Settareh," and while I understand the need for marketing, and for reader appeal (what better way to draw in fairytale lovers young and old, than to describe this as a "Cinderella" story?), I wish that a culturally specific name had been used, with any parallel to other traditions confined either to the description, or to a subtitle. Something after the fashion of Petrosinella: A Neopolitan Rapunzel, which happens to be my favorite variant of the "Rapunzel" tale-type.

That said, I did find the actual story here, taken from that classic collection, Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, where it is known as The Anklet, very engaging. I also appreciated that, this time around, Climo actually named her textual source material! The cultural details - Settareh lives in the women's quarters; Prince Mehrdad is unable to search for the mysterious anklet-owner, because he cannot visit women in their homes - offer a fascinating glimpse of another place and time. The illustrations by Robert Florczak, which a friend has astutely compared to the work of Maxfield Parrish, are appealing. All in all, despite my critique of the title, this is a book I would recommend to young fairytale lovers, and to readers interested in international variants of the "persecuted heroine" tale-type.

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“The Persian Cinderella” is a wonderful international book for students to read. This book will take students on adventure to the far away country of Ancient Persia; it shows the student how people in Persia used to dress and how they used to act. The main purpose of this story is very similar

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to the original Cinderella, which is to follow your dreams not matter what may come your way. The author did a great job of depicting what life in Persia might be like and she did a great job at describing the emotions in this book. For example at one point the Prince was sad and she depicted this by saying, “He plucked the hairs from his beard.” One can get a great visual of the Prince’s anguish at losing his Cinderella. So the imagery in this book amazing sometimes the reader didn’t even have to look at the pictures, or the reader could smell what the author was describing.

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The story of the Persian Cinderella is a different version of the traditional Cinderella we are familiar with. It takes place in the Mediterranean. The story and the illustrations give us so many details on the differences between cultures form the way they dress to how they live in their houses.

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The story follows the typical order where the princess is an unhappy, lonely kind hearted woman who meets her prince but the evilness of her stepsisters gets in the way. As most fairy tales, the princess overcomes evil and is able to live happily ever after.

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The Persian Cinderella is similar to the typical Disney Cinderella story. However, there are some differences in them. This story has a magic pari inside of a pot that grants the girl all her wishes. Settareh has two stepsisters who are rude to her and make fun of her. Before the holiday, the pari

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gave Settareh her wishes and granted her with new clothes and diamond anklets. The prince in this story found one of the anklets. The mother of the prince went out to find out whom they belonged to. Eventually she found Settareh and the stepsisters realized there was a pari in the jar. The stepsisters wished evil things upon the girl, but the prince saved her in the end. I liked how there were similar elements to the other Cinderella, but the author still made it different. For example, one of my favorite parts was the pari. I liked how the author made the godmother different in this story and it created a genie or a fairy that granted wishes. The main message was to be confident in yourself and not allow others to control your life. Settareh did not allow her sisters to control her and she bought whatever she wanted at the market. Overall, I enjoyed this story because it was a different version of Cinderella and the plot was very interesting.

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