Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters An African Tale Book ✓ 32 pages ´ John steptoe

Kindle Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters An African Tale

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters An African Tale Book ✓ 32 pages ´ John steptoe ´ [Read] ➫ Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters An African Tale Author John Steptoe – Dogsalonbristol.co.uk A Caldecott Honor and Reading Rainbow book this memorable retelling of Cinderella is perfect for introA Caldecott Honor and Reading Rainbow book this memorable retelling of Cinderella is perfect for introducing children to the fairy tale as well as the history culture and geography of the African nation of ZimbabweInspired by a traditional African folktale this is the story of Mufaro who is proud of his two beautiful daughters Nyasha is kind John Steptoe's absolutely brilliant Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is basically an African take on the globally known and ever popular Cinderella folklore theme both narrative and illustrations are outstanding in every way and their lovely and evocative marriage their delightful combination turn Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters into truly a shining and glistening gem of a picture book and not only for children but actually for anyone interested in and appreciative of global folk and fairy tales And while the tale while John Steptoe's presented or rather his adapted narrative like many if not most Cinderella type stories is indeed perhaps rather predictable it is still and indeed engagingly narrated and the evocative accompanying illustrations are simply and utterly almost too beautiful for words Further the fact that details of the illustrations are based on the ruins of an ancient city found in Zimbabwe pays necessary and cultural homage to the historic civilisations of Africa Now personally I especially and particularly have enjoyed that Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters really features no absolute and horrible villains Manyara might be vain proud unhappy and most definitely constantly teases her sister Nyasha but she also NEVER tries to actively harm her sister unlike so many of the other Cinderella type stories where the stepsisters or siblings as well as the stepmothers not only constantly make life miserable for the heroine but often try to actively harm and sometimes even kill the poor girl And when Mufaro and Nyasha finally arrive in the city Manyara even attempts to warn her sister about the supposed monster Manyara thus even with her proud vanity even though she is selfish and often prone to teasing and nastiness cares about her sister's safety and she obviously could not have known that for Nyasha having passed the test that Manyara herself has failed the snake would turn into the king and then of course become Nyasha's husbandNow with regard to folkloric euivalences aside from the obvious Cinderella thematics Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters also rather strongly does remind me of some of the what I would call sibling uest type of tales where two very different sisters or brothers go on a similar uest but only one the virtuous humble sibling who shares hisher food and is kind and loving to all receives a reward and there is perhaps even a suggestion of folklore that features a monster bridegroom namely the snake that turns into the king And finally while I do appreciate that John Steptoe has included a short author's note acknowledging his main sources the folklore enthusiast in me would have most definitely preferred a in depth analysis and discussion of origins sources and comparisons; his author's note is than adeuate but it does leave me wishing for a bit detail and indeed a thorough and involved author's note would definitely have made Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters into a five star book for me