Cinderella of the Nile (One Story, Many Voices)

Rhodopis, a beautiful Greek girl was captured and sold into slavery in Egypt. Finally, the master decided to sell her again because although she was beautiful, she never smiled. The next person who bought her was a Greek merchant, and when he learned her story, he treated her like a daughter. One day there was an invitation to a ball, where it was rumored that the pharaoh would attend, looking for a queen. Rhodopis didn’t go, but the god Horus, as a falcon, grabbed one of Rhodopis’s slippers and dropped it into the pharaoh’s hand. Then the pharaoh spotted Rhodopis, freeing a trapped kingfisher. When Rhodopis tried the slipper, it fit perfectly, of course. The pharaoh took Rhodopis as his queen, and they lived happily ever after.

This Cinderella story was definitely better than other Cinderella stories. It is more realistic because there is no fairy godmother. The falcon was kind of like the fairy godmother, but it could have just been any falcon that grabbed her shoe. You will like Rhodopis’s friendship with Aesop, and there are a lot of other differences too. The illustrations are good and help you feel like you are in a foreign land. Even if you have read a lot of Cinderella stories, this is a good one to read as well. It is similar to the ones you already know, but different enough that it feels like a whole new story.