Anklet for a Princess By: Lila Mehta Adapted by: Meredith Brucker (Multicultural or International Literature)

Anklet for a Princess by Lila Mehta is another version of the modern day fairytale Cinderella. This book is a Cinderella story from India. Cinduri lived with only her stepmother and her stepmothers daughter Lata. Her stepmother only loved her daughter Lata and forced Cinduri to do all the work to maintain their farm. Cinduris parents had died from an epidemic that swept through their village years ago. One day while gathering water, Cinduri was crying thinking about her parents and how much she missed them. Suddenly, right in front of her eyes arose a snake with a red jewel on his head. He asked Cinduri why she was dressed in such dirty and ugly rags, being such a beautiful girl. Cinduri explained to him that her stepmother made her do all the work. He was shocked by this and by the fact that she was not given much to eat. He gave her a big plate filled with many East Indian foods, and told her that anytime she needed help, or food to come to the lake and sing a certain song and he would appear. After many days of this occuring, Cinduris step mother noticed that she seemed much happier and was eating more. She had her Lata follow Cinduri to the lake to see what was happening. Lata returned and told her mother of the snake. Cinduri then rushed home telling of the news that the Prince would be at the ninth day of the Navaratri Festivial. When Cinduri asked if she could go, her stepmother said there was to much work to be done. Cinduri set out to the lake and sang her song and her Godfather snake appeared. He dressed her in the most wonderful cloth of gold threads and gave her beautiful anklets to wear to the ball, but she had to be back by midnight. Cinduri arrived at the festival and the Prince danced with her, but when midnigh came she had to leave. However, one of her anklets fell off as she left. The Prince set out to let every woman in the village try on the anklet and the one whose ankle it fit he would marry. The stepmother and daughter Lata set out to try it on but told Cinduri that she may not. After everyone had tried on the anklet, and the Prince had no luck, he then spotted Cinduri. He let her try on the anklet and sure enough it fit her ankle. All of a sudden she went from rags to beautiful cloths and the Prince and Cinduri were married. They lived in a big palace with a lake for the Godfather snake to live in. The stepmother and daughter Lata ran away and lived as beggars for the rest of their lives. I enjoyed reading this version of Cinderella. I found it to be very similar to the European version that we are most used to. I think this would be a great way to incorporate diversity of cultures into the classroom.