The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story

This is a classic retelling of Cinderella, but from the Middle Eastern country of Iraq. It has the same theme but instead of the glass slipper she has a golden sandal.

This story was a Middle Eastern Cinderella Story, the girl begged her father to marry the lady, but she did not know the way she would be treated. The bride that is married has a brother who finds the shoe from her wedding and seeks out the girl. When his brother wants to marry Maha's step sister

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she has a curse on her.

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Beautiful Illustrations to a Cinderella story with a few changes.

THis is a very interesting book and a great way to incorporate culture into your classroom which they can relate to what they already know through the CInderella they already know.

This book is similar to the traditional Cinderella story about a girl who is the servant of the mean stepmother and her stepsisters. This story takes place is the Middle East, with a girl named Maha. Instead of a fairy Godmother Maha confines in her friend that's a fish!

Another version of Cinderella this version was ok to me. However it had a setting that middle eastern children could relate to. It also gives children from all over to see another version of Cinderella.

This week we read three versions of Cinderella. Cinderella is a very common story that has been retold in many different ways. We read the original, a Middle Eastern version, and a Chinese version.
Obviously, all of the settings were different. Each book was set in a different part of the world, but

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they also lived in different kinds of homes. The original Cinderella is European, set in a kingdom. In the Middle Eastern version, Maha lives in the fishermen’s part of the city in a hut. In the Chinese version, Yeh-Shen lives in a cave home. Although, Cinderella and Yeh-Shen each marry a prince and live in a palace at the end of their books.
The general plot in each story is the same: a girl’s father marries and she gains a step mother and sister(s), they make her clean like a servant, someone with magical qualities helps transform the girl in beautiful clothes so she can go out, she loses a shoe, a man searches for her after finding the shoe, and they marry, living happily ever after. Some specifics of the plot are different in each story though.
In Cinderella, her fairy Godmother transforms her so she can go to the ball. The magic in the other two versions comes from a fish. In The Golden Sandal, Maha helps save a little fish and in return, he promises to help her with whatever she wishes. The little fish provides Maha with clothes so she can go to the bride’s Henna and be noticed by mothers of single men. In Yeh-Shen, the bones of her pet fish have magical qualities that allow her to make wishes on them. She wishes to be able to go to the festival so she can meet someone to marry.
Each of the girls has small feet and loses a shoe on her way home. Cinderella loses a glass slipper; the prince finds it and has his men try the slipper on every eligible young woman in the kingdom. Maha loses her golden sandal on the way home from the Henna, the bride’s brother, Tariq, finds it and has his mother search for the girl it belongs to. Yeh-Shen loses her golden slipper on the way home from the festival and when the king acquires it, he sets it out for the owner to claim.
In every version, the girl finds a man to marry, but in a different way. Cinderella meets the prince at a ball; when the prince’s men find that the glass slipper fits her foot she marries the prince. The bride’s mother finds Maha and she becomes engaged to her son; they meet face-to-face at their wedding. After Yeh-Shen claims the slipper and takes it home, the king follows her and this is where they first meet. Yeh-Shen puts her golden slippers on and is transformed once again, and the king knows this is the woman he must marry.
The ending is different in each book. Cinderella marries the prince, moves to the palace, and allows her two stepsisters to move in with her, where they also meet someone to marry. Maha marries the Tariq and they have seven children; Tariq’s brother disgracefully rejects her stepsister. Yeh-Shen marries the king and they live in the palace; her stepmother and sister are not allowed to move with her and are forced to stay in their cave home. Yeh-Shen’s stepmother and sister are crushed to death when stones fall on their cave. Yeh-Shen’s story had the most negative outcome for the stepfamily, while Cinderella’s had the most positive.

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Middle eastern version of Cinderella. A fish is the fairy godmother.
Lower elementary
Read Aloud
32 pages
THEMES- family, forgiveness, relationships, hardships, friendship

Rebecca Hickox tells a different twist to the Cinderella story. Maha's father is widowed and she wants him to marry and be happy. Not long after he marries he dies and her step mother turns her into a slave by having her do all the chores. One day Maha meets a magical fish. The Cinderella story

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continues with and Iraqui twist. I love the end and so did my students. Grades K - 3.

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This Iraqi Cinderella tale will be familiar to American children, yet sufficiently different to keep their interest. It is a multi-cultural fable that introduces a slice of middle-eastern culture. Instead of wishing for an invitation to a prince's ball, Maha longs to attend a bride's henna. When

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the magic red fish supplies her with the accoutrements necessary to attend, she washes herself in the river before donning her new garments, obviously a ritual of preparation for an important event. In another cultural twist, it is the mother that searches out Maha, as she is the arranger of the family's marriages.

The illustrations by Will Hillenbrand are done in a complex process using vellum, bristol board, oils, oil pastel, egg tempera, watercolor, artist crayons and woodless pencils. The detailed "Illustrator's Note" on the last page explains the process. The result is illustrations in muted tones that suggest an age-old fairy tale, but are sufficiently colorful to suggest majesty and exoticness. Many of the illustrations are two page spreads. The hennaed bride at the merchant's house meeting a noble, yet simply dressed Maha underscores the cultural difference between The Golden Sandal and Cinderella. The illustrations follow the story line and offer additional bits of information. It is through the illustrations that we learn of the stepsister's clumsiness and see evidence of her mean-spiritedness. There is welcome humor and revenge in the story and illustrations as well, as the stepmother's revengeful plan backfires, and the stepdaughter is left with a bald head full of blisters - humorously illustrated by Hillenbrand.

This is a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to Middle-Eastern culture in a way that is at once familiar and exotic.
Connections:
This Iraqi fairy tale is a wonderful way to gently remind children that there is more in Iraq than war. There are children - children whose parents read them bedtime stories, much the same type of stories as we read here in the United States. For older children, a great companion read would be The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter.

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This is the Middle Eastern version of the traditional Cinderella story. The same lesson is taught, which is to be nice to others or it will come back to haunt you. In this version it isn’t a glass slipper instead it's a golden sandal, and they go onto tell how many children they later have

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together. Also there is a talking fish rather than a fairy godmother, but overall it follows the same story line.

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Beautiful illustrations by Will Hillenbrand.

Cinderella with a twist, I enjoyed that the Stepmother's evil tricks backfired on her own daughter and that Maha was able to find love and fortune by being a good person. I would include this story in a unit on Cinderella stories from around the world.

A new take on Cinderella. I like how it is not the typical Cinderella a new idea on Cinderella.

Personal Response:
I like that the well-known Cinderella tale is still recognizable to children, but key middle eastern influences are present, the wedding ceremonies, mothers making wedding arrangements, being married to a rich merchant's son instead of a prince.
Curricular Connections:
I would use

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this story in a story time about Cinderella around the world.

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This is a Cinderella story from Iran with many of the traditional elements, but incorporating a talking fish (much like the Chinese version). The mother of the groom (who's from a wealthy family, but not a prince), is the one who goes looking for the bride in this gender segregated culture. I

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didn't like the illustrations in this one- I wasn't into the style, and the pictures looked more European than Middle Eastern.

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Interesting middle eastern take on the Cinderella story. Slightly more engaging than Perrault's.

This tells the tale of Cinderella from the Middle-Eastern perspective. Students will notice that there are differences from the one that they are used to. It includes many references to Middle-Eastern culture.

The daughter of a widowed fisherman, Maha was lonely for a mother's love, and convinced her father to marry their neighbor. Unfortunately for her, her new stepmother was resentful and unkind, and the young girl was made to do all the work, while her stepsister lazed around. After sparing the

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talking red fish she finds one day, Maha gains a magical ally who helps her throughout her childhood and adolescence. When denied the chance to attend the henna party of a wealthy merchant's daughter, Maha appeals to the fish, and is given enchanted clothing to wear. Returning home at the end of the evening, she loses one of her golden sandals, and it is found by the merchant's son, who is so struck by its dainty beauty, that he decides he must marry its owner...

Adapted from the Iraqi tale of The Little Red Fish and the Clog of Gold, to be found in Inea Bushnaq's 1986 Arab Folktales, this Middle Eastern Cinderella story has many of the elements associated with this tale type, from the unkind stepmother and lazy stepsister, to the magical protector/guide. There is even a party to which the Cinderella figure wishes to go, although here it is a women's only party, rather than the ball of the western tradition. The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story is the second folkloric picture-book I have read from author Rebecca Hickox, following upon her Zorro and Quwi: Tales of a Trickster Guinea Pig, and I enjoyed the narrative, appreciating the mixture of familiar and unfamiliar elements. The accompanying artwork from illustrator Will Hillenbrand, created on velum in a variety of media (he discusses his method in a note at the read), was likewise appealing. The only thing I would criticize is the author's claim, in her afterword, that the Chinese variant of this tale type is the oldest recorded version. This is in fact untrue, as the ancient Egyptian version - see Shirley Climo's The Egyptian Cinderella for a retelling - is the oldest known version. Leaving that aside, this is one I would recommend to young folklore enthusiasts, and to anyone seeking Cinderella variants from around the world.

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I liked this story for a few reasons. The main reason was that “The Golden Sandal” is a spinoff of the famous fairy tale Cinderella. I found it very interesting that someone took Cinderella and changed up the story so it could fit into the Middle Eastern culture. I also enjoyed the easily

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readable illustrations in the story. They matched the text very well and they made the story more enjoyable for me. That is what I liked about this story.

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I liked this book mainly because it was a totally different spin off of the tale of Cinderella that we are all used to in one way or another. I liked how the author really tied in the culture that it was aimed for, and how the tale varies because of the cultural differences. I also liked how it

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wasn't the typical prince searching for her, but the prince's mother. It changes up the story, so it is not the same thing being read over and over again. I disliked the book mainly because of the lack of culture, i would have liked to see more linguistic diversity, and other areas of diversity throughout the book. I mean there were some examples, but not a lot.

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I enjoyed Rebecca Hickox’s story “ The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story” because it is a different version of the fairy tale classic Cinderella with elements from the story Aladdin (the magic fish resembles the genie in the classic tale of Aladdin). In the story Hickox uses

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descriptive language to describe Maha’s home abuse and the reasons for her misfortune. HIckox states that “the fisherman’s first wife (Maha’s mother) drowned and her father remarried. At first all went well, but as time passed, the woman (Maha’s stepmother) saw how much the fisherman loved his daughter”. Due to jealousy Maha’s stepmother began to torment, abuse, and overwork her even going as far as to only give her “a few dried dates to eat”. The story has a very suspenseful plot as throughout the story the reader is left wondering if the evil stepmother will be repaid for her foul actions, and if Maha will overcome her obstacles and be set free from her stepmother. The book makes the reader consider topics like abuse and it’s affect on the victim as well as why people abuse others. In this case it was out of sheer jealousy, which causes the reader to recognize how jealousy has a negative affect on both the jealous person and the person that is the object of jealousy. The overall message in this story is that every kind deed is repaid, and every foul deed will be punished.

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This story is a very interesting telling of the classic story of Cinderella. Students will love this story, and it will be a great way to show students that the same story can be told in many different ways.

This book was a unique take on the typical Cinderella story that we all know today, that came from Europe. The story of Maha as a fisherman's daughter and her experience with a step mother and crude treatment, with the inclusion of a red fish?? This is definitely a different folk tale of a classic,

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with a twist and interesting turn out of things. Highly recommend this book in the classroom when comparing and contrasting the same piece of literature in different contexts/countries/cultures and so much more.

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