Darrell H. Y. Lum

The Golden Slipper: A Vietnamese Legend is a version the common Cinderella story (there seems to be one just about everywhere doesn't there?). This is the story of Tam (Cinderella), Cam (the wicked stepsister, only one in this story), and Stepmother (no name is ever given, she is simply called Stepmother). We have all the traditional elements, Tam's father dies soon after marrying the stepmother (the story here suggests that it was perhaps of a broken heart over the way the Stepmother treated Tam), leaving the girl to the usual abuses (being made to work both the rice farm and clean the house and wait on her Stepmother and sister). Along the way, she is befriend by a small catfish, the "royal rooster," and the old farm horse; each of whom she treats with kindness...feeding both the catfish and the rooster from her own meager food bowl and by allowing the horse frequent stops to nibble on the grasses while working the fields.

As is always the case, the vain and spoiled stepsister and the stepmother head off to the Autumn Festival to meet the Prince while Tam is left at the farm to clean an entire cart of rice to pay for her spoiled sisters new festival clothes...and we all know how this plays out...though the WAY it plays out is given a Vietnamese twist and of course we have the usual happy ending. You'll have to read if you'd like to know how the "fairy god mother" and the "golden slipper" come into play here, and it's a charming twist on the traditional tale that won't leave lovers of Cinderella stories disappointed! I give it five stars, it's an excellent retelling with charming details that make it a nice change from what most of us are used to reading here in the United States. One final note, each book in this series comes with a one page summary of the legend, including other names it's been called and a bit about the history how the story developed and what its significance is, so you don't just get the story...you get the context as well! This is something that I really enjoy in this series and it's one of the reasons that I recommend it.… (mere)