The Rough Faced Girl

The Rough Faced Girl
Martin, Rafe
Shannon, David
Putnam and Grosset Group, NY, NY (1992)
Fairy Tate, Traditional Literature, multicultural
k-3

The Rough Faced Girl lived in Lake Ontario Canada in an Algonquin village long ago. She had two sisters who treated her terribly. They made her set so close to the fire that she became burnt and scared only so that she could constantly feed the fire and keep them warm. The laughed at her and felt no pity or guilt for the way the rough faced girl was forced to live. Their father gave his oldest daughters whatever they wanted and allowed his youngest daughter to live such a miserable life. The oldest daughters were very beautiful and wore the best of clothes but there poor little sister bore terrible scars. The oldest sisters believed that because of their beauty they would be able to marry the rich and powerful invisible being who hid himself. In order to marry the invisible being the girls had to have seen him. They lied to the Invisible Being's brother telling them that they had seen him. He knew the girls were liars when they were unable to tell him what the Invisible Being's bow and sled was made of. He turned the girls away despite their beauty. The Rough Faced Girl became convinced that she was supposed to marry the Invisible Being. She made herself the best outfit she could out of the scraps her father had given fer and set off to see the Invisible Being. The Invisible Being saw her inner beauty and allowed her to see him. She wen to the Invisible being's wise sister and told her she had seen him. She was able two answer the wise woman's questions about her brother. The Rough Faced girl bathed in the lake and all of her scars disappeared. The two were married and and live a happy life together.

This adaptation of the Cinderella story is much different from Perrault's version. The Rough Faced girl did not have and evil stepmother. Instead, she had a weak father who did nothing to protect his daughter. I think that this is even worse than the evil stepmother because his daughter was his flesh and blood whom he was supposed to protest. I wish the story gave more insight on why her father behaved this way. Why were the two older sisters so evil when the youngest sister was so kind? I think that this book is an excellent book to use to get students thinking about the characters beyond what the author writes. I would like to have the students rewrite the story and have them fill in the blanks and answer all of the questions the class comes up with during class discussion. One third grade class in Terryville wrote and illustrated their own endings for the story. I think kids would like this discussion because they have endless creativity. I would also use this book to help students understand the traits of traditional fiction and their similarities to one another. This is an excellent book to make a creative vinn-diagram with that compares this version to another.

The single page illustration's by Shannon are very moving. His illustration of The Rough faced girl being burned by the sparks made by hart sink. Her pain and helplessness was so evident. It is not until the very end of the story when she washes away her burns that he allows us to see her whole face. This leads the reader to believe that he is not showing us her face in order to protect us from the horrible agony that is shown on her face. With out his illustrations I dont think I could have never fully understood her pain. The author and illustrator do a wonderful job showing us her soul. She is beautiful, kind and pure even when her body is scared and burned. My favorite part about this book is that it gives the message that beauty is truly more than skin deep.