Title: The Gift of the Crocodile
Author: Judy Sierra
Artist: Reynold Ruffins
Author: Judy Sierra
Artist: Reynold Ruffins
Genre: Animals / Manners / Fairy Tale
Year Published: 2000
Year Read: 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 6+ (Child Mistreatment)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
Now, I have read many different versions of the “Cinderella” fairy tale and they
usually have the same set up which includes:
1) The main heroine "Cinderella" has an evil stepsister and stepmother that make her life miserable.
2) "Cinderella" has a "fairy godmother" figure that gives her a new dress and helps her get to the ball.
3) "Cinderella" loses her slipper, which causes the princes to search the entire kingdom to find the maiden who fits the slipper.
So, imagine my surprise that there was finally a
version of “Cinderella” that came
from Indonesia and I was not disappointed by the results!
In this version of the classic “Cinderella” story, a
young girl named Damura once lived a happy life with her mother. But one day, her mother dies and Damura’s
father ended up marrying another woman who happened to have a daughter of her
own and at first they treated Damura well, but then they started mistreating
her by making her do all the housework.
One day, the prince of the land invited all the young women in the
village to dance for him and Damura ends up going to a wise old crocodile who
she calls Grandmother Crocodile and the Crocodile acts as a fairy godmother to
Damura by giving her a golden sarong and golden slippers to wear at the palace.
Once the prince notices Damura at the ball, he immediately wanted to marry her;
but of course, Damura was forced to run away from the palace when the rooster
started crowing and she accidentally left one of her slippers behind.
Will
the Prince find the maiden who wore the slipper and what will Damura’s
stepmother and stepsister do if the Prince finds out that Damura is the one
dancing at the ball?
Read
this book to find out!
I have read many books written by Judy Sierra and I was always intrigued
with her ability to retell stories that deal with folktales and myths
(especially the brilliant children’s book “The
Gruesome Guide to World Monsters)!
So, imagine my surprise when I saw that Judy Sierra had retold an Indonesian folktale that was inspired by
the “Cinderella” story and man was I
impressed with what I read in this version of the classic “Cinderella” story! I loved
the fact that we finally got a version of the “Cinderella” tale from Indonesia since I rarely read folktales that
came from Indonesia and it was nice seeing a different spin on the “Cinderella” tale as this story
honestly did give an extremely unique spin on the tale. I loved the fact that the fairy godmother in
this tale is actually a large crocodile that is called “Grandmother Crocodile”
as it gave the story a more unique style and I just love the idea about the
main characters associating with animal characters in folktales in general. I also enjoyed learning more about the
culture of Indonesia in this story as we get to see the characters dance at the
ball and I loved seeing how significant Damura’s sarong is for her character in
this story. Reynold Ruffins’ artwork is truly gorgeous to look at especially of
the scenes where the characters are shown in a swamp and you can see the trees
tangled up with each other and see how colorful the swamp looks like. I also loved the images of the characters’
clothing as they look truly exotic and it makes me want to wear the clothing
worn by the Indonesians of that time!
The reason why I gave this book a four star rating
was because I felt like the pacing of this story was a bit too slow and I often
found myself wishing that the story would move on at a much quicker pace to
retain my attention. Also, I felt that
the characters were a little too flat as they did not seem to have much personalities
other than being stand ins for the characters of the original “Cinderella” story.
Overall, “The
Gift of the Crocodile” is a great story for anyone who is a huge fan of the
classic “Cinderella” story and who
wants to read folktales from other countries such as Indonesia! I would recommend this book to children ages
six and up since there are some Indonesian terms in this book that might
confuse smaller children.
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