The Rough-Face Girl

Title: The Rough-Face Girl    

Author: Rafe Martin

Illustrator: David Shannon

Date of publication: 1992

Publishing Company: The Putnam Berkley Group, Inc.

Awards: Teacher's Choice Book,

IRA Children's Booksellers' Choice, 

Georgia Children's Picture Storybook Award Winner

Nebraska's Golden Sower Award

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Folktales

Theme: An Algonquin Indian Cinderella tale

Primary Characters: Rough-Face Girl

Secondary characters: her 2 mean sisters

Classroom Use: A great Indian folktale that gives a version of the traditional and widely known Cinderella tale. Good book to read about other cultures versions of folktales. It can incorporate other cultures into the classroom.

Summary: An Algonquin Indian folktale version of Cinderella. It’s a story about a girl that is named, Rough-Face girl. She lives with her poor father and her 2 mean sisters that make her sit and feed the flames of the fire. Her sitting and feeding the flames causes her hair to burn and many burn scars all over her face and body. Her and her sisters compete to marry the Invisible being, who in this case portrays the prince as in Cinderella. In the end, it is the Rough-Face Girl that sees the true beauty of the world—no matter what and is the one that marries the Invisible Being. She turns out to become very beautiful in the end. The Indian tale has the same storyline as Cinderella.