Author: Shirley Climo
Artist: Ruth Heller
Genre: Fairy Tale / Folktale / Korea
Year Published: 1993
Year Read: 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 5+ (Child Mistreatment)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
For many years, I have read so many different
interpretations of “Cinderella,” but
I have never come across a Korean version of this classic tale! “The
Korean Cinderella” is a glorious retelling of the classic “Cinderella” written by Shirley Climo along with illustrations
by Ruth Heller and it will surely be
an instant hit with children who love reading stories from other cultures!
In the land
of Korea, where magical
creatures existed, there lived a young girl named Pear Blossom who was
extremely beautiful. One tragic day however,
her mother died and her father ended up marrying a mean and spiteful woman
named Omoni, who also has a daughter named Peony and they were both cruel to
Pear Blossom and made her do all the work around the house. Even though Omoni forces Pear Blossom to do
so many chores, Pear Blossom is helped by many magical creatures such as a
magical frog, magical sparrows and a magical ox. One day however, a festival is held and Pear
Blossom notices the handsome magistrate, but she accidentally leaves behind one
of her sandals, which the magistrate ends up finding.
I will admit that I have read so many different versions of
Cinderella that the story itself becomes familiar to me, no matter how
different the versions are. Shirley Climo has done a brilliant job
at writing this Korean retelling of the classic fairy tale as the story is
truly breathtaking and marvelous to read about.
I loved the way that Shirley Climo
portrayed the magical creatures that eventually help Pear Blossom on her chores
as regular animals such as a frog, a pack of sparrows and an ox as that really
brought out the beauty of Korean folktales.
I also loved the Korean phrases that were shown in this book such as
Omoni, which means ‘Mother’ and ‘tokgabi’ which means ‘goblin.’ Ruth Heller’s illustrations are truly
beautiful in this book as they were inspired by the patterns painted on the
eaves of Korean temples, which truly brings out the true spirit of Korea. Probably my favorite illustrations in this
book were of the characters themselves, as they show realistic facial
expressions whenever they are unhappy or whenever they are mad, such as the
image of Peony having her hair be pulled by the sparrows and you can see the
anguish look on her face as her hair is being pulled.
Overall, “The Korean
Cinderella” is a brilliant adaptation of a classic fairy tale that fans of
the “Cinderella” stories will surely
love to read over and over again! I
would recommend this book to children ages five and up since some of the Korean
phrases like “Omoni” and “Tokgabi” might be hard for younger children to
understand.
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