THE KOREAN CINDERELLA by Shirley Climo

This post was done for an assignment at TWU


Bibliography
Climo, Shirley. 1993. The Korean Cinderella. Ill by Ruth Heller. Mexico: Harper Collins Publishers.



ISBN 0=06-020432-x

Summary

The Korean Cinderella starts off with a couple that had wanted a child for a long time. Eventually they had a daughter. They called her Pear Blossom. The woman died and the man went to a matchmaker to find someone that could look after Pear Blossom. The matchmaker found a woman who had a daughter Pear Blossom's age that was named Peony. The woman gave Pear blossom seemingly impossible tasks to complete. She told her to fill a pot that had a hole in it, to polish a huge sack of rice and to weed the rice paddies. On all three tasks a "magical" animal helped her complete the tasks. A frog filled the hole in the pot, birds polished the rice and a bull ate all the weeds in the rice paddies. If Pear Blossom completed the last task she could go to the village festival. On the way to the festival she stopped to get a pebble out of her shoe. as she did the magistrate cam be. Pear Blossom got scared and ran away leaving her shoe. The magistrate was struck by her beauty and ordered one of his men to pick up her sandal and take him back to the village. At the festival Pear Blossom's step mom was accusing her of stealing fruit (the ox had given it to her). When the magistrate came up her step mother thought he was going to arrest her for stealing but instead said she would become his bride.

Analysis
This book did a good job sticking to the plot of the original Cinderella story. Even if the title did not have Cinderella in it I would have been able to relate the two. With the characters, you felt a little sorry and protective of Pear Blossom while feeling disdain for Omani and even Peony, the step-sister. I do not know a lot about the Korean culture but I know feel that I know a little more by reading this book. The illustrations helped to reinforce that the story was set in Korea. The style of dress, the houses and even the bright and vivid colors gave the impression that the story took place in Korea. The author did a great job of portraying the culture of the Korean Cinderella. While it is a Cinderella story the chores and tasks that Pear Blossom had to do wear centered around the Korean culture.


Review Excerpts


School Library Journal review: "Heller's lush, full-color illustrations capture the vibrancy of traditional Korean culture with great accuracy."


School Library Journal review: "Climo combines three Korean variants on this folktale to create a retelling close to the French version."


Connections:
I like to do a compare and contrast with Cinderella stories. I would do a Cinderella unit for about a week, reading 4 different versions, one on each day. On Friday I would have my class fill out a chart (designed like the Frayer model) that has the differences or aspects that were unique to that book on one part and the similarities in the center of the paper. I would then have the students tell which one was their favorite and why. It depends on the age of the class on how I would do this. If they are older I would have them write about it, if they are younger I would have a few students tell the class. I think it is good for them to see the differences and similarities between different cultures and places. It is a good way to introduce or reinforce this idea with a familiar story.