Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters Written and Illustrated by: John Steptoe

This is an African Cinderella Tale. It is a Reading Rainbow book and it won a Caldecott Honor in 1987. John Steptoe does a wonderful job of relating this traditional African Folktale. The text of the story comes from a Kaffir Folktale written down in 1895 by G.M. Theal. The names of the characters come from the Shona language, Mufaro means happy man, Nyasha means mercy, Manyara means ashamed and Nyoka means snake. The illustrations were inspired by the people and places in and near Zimbabwe. The combination of text and illustrations results in a beautiful and respectful look at one aspect of African culture. The author thanks the people who helped with the research and dedicates the book to the children of South Africa. This is one of many, many variations on the tale of Cinderella. There are similarities: the good sister and the mean one, the seeking out of a wife by the prince, and the structure of the story ie: Once upon a time....... and they lived happily ever after. There are also differences: the prince magically changes shape to discover which girl is the most worthy, there is no evil step mother, and the Cinderella character does not need saving by a fairy godmother. The illustrations in this book add much to the story. Almost every page is a full bleed. The medium is pencil and watercolor. The illustrator chose deep rich colors and based each illustration on the customs, people and landscape of Zimbabwe. I enjoyed this story for both its look into the African culture and one of its fairy tales and as a welcome addition to stories where good triumphs over evil.