17. The Rough Faced Girl [picture]

By: Rafe Martin
Illustration by: David Shannon
Genre: Children's picture book
Subgenre: Children's fiction
Theme: Cinderella Story
Primary characters: The invisible being, father, and three daughters
Awards: N/A
Date of Publication: 1992
Publishing Company: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Summary: This story is about a young girl in a village that gets tortured by her two older sisters. They call her the rough faced girl because they make her tend to the fire in which flames leaves scars on her face. There is the invisible being in the village who every woman wants to marry. He is said to be handsome and very kind. The invisible being lives with his sister and in order to marry him the woman must prove that she has seen him before. One day the two older daughters turn to their father and ask for the finest clothes he can afford. They get all dressed up and head towards the invisible beings wigwam to marry him. They arrive at the great wigwam and ask to marry the invisible being. The sister stands there and asks them questions to prove if they have seen her brother. Of course the girls lied and did not answer the questions correctly, so they were sent home. The rough faced girl then goes to her father and asks for nice clothing and new moccasins. The father looks at her sadly, and says that the other two daughters took all he had. He gave her some worn moccasins and broken shells to make a necklace. She does her best to look presentable as she hesitantly walks through the village towards the great wigwam. She encounters the sister, who looks at her and smiles. She can tell the rough faced girl is sincere. The girl answers the questions correctly and gets dipped into a pool where her inner beauty is now shown on the outside. Her and the invisible being live happily ever after. This story would be great to show a class another Cinderella story from another culture. This book takes on a popular folk tale and places it within another culture. Learning about other cultures is important.