Owlhaven, our Ethiopian adoption blogger, just wrote a post about a petition being circulated asking Disney to create a movie about a Black heroine. This is a wonderful idea, and I don't understand why the marketing geniuses over at Disney haven't yet come up with it. The audience is ripe and waiting for a movie like that - and has been for years.

Us in the library field know how hot the multicultural market is for stories about princesses of varying ethnicities. I'm talking about the multitude of Cinderella stories out there featuring non-European, non-Disneyfied Cinderellas. There are so many multicultural Cinderalla books out there that entire language arts units and entire library shelves are given over to these books!

All the books feature the same basic story: nice, hardworking girl treated poorly by her parent/stepparent, then catches the eye of handsome prince and is recognized for the true royalty she is.

Now, I don't want to start a fight about the 'bad message' the basic story sends to young women. If you don't like it, teach your girls that they can pull their own selves up by their own glass slipper straps and get educated and get a job to buy their own tiara. I'm all for that. But I'm also for a bit of fantasy, and while I was never a ballgown-wearing girl, I know that there are many out there.

Some of these stories are based on culturally-specific legends that are similar to the European one. After all, it's an archetypal story that is familiar to all cultures. Some are simply placed in a specific country or culture and the story is changed to make it that culture's own. In either case, my point is that although Disney has yet to make a movie version of a Black princess, there are many, many picture book versions of the same story. All little girls can look and see their faces reflected in these multicultural versions.

Here are some possibilities for multicultural Cinderellas:

• Cendrillon : A Caribbean Cinderella, by Robert D. San Souci, Brian Pinkney



• The Rough-Face Girl, by Rafe Martin (Native American)



• The Egyptian Cinderella, by Shirley Climo, Ruth Heller (Illustrator)



• The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella Story, by Penny Pollock, Ed Young (Native American)


• The Korean Cinderella, by Shirley Climo, Ruth Heller



• The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story, by Rebecca Hickox, Will Hillenbrand



• Domitila: A Cinderella Tale from the Mexican Tradition, by Jewell Reinhart Coburn, Connie McLennan



• Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India, by Meredith Babeaux Brucker, Lila Mehta



• Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella, by Jewell Reinhart Coburn, Tzexa Cherta Lee, Anne Sibley O'Brien



• Angkat: The Cambodian Cinderella, by Jewell Reinhart Coburn, Edmund Flotte



• Abadeha: The Philippine Cinderella, by Myrna J. De LA Paz, You-Shan Tang



• The Way Meat Loves Salt: A Cinderella Tale from the Jewish Tradition, by Nina Jaffe, Louise August



• Little Gold Star: A Spanish American Cinderella Tale, by Robert D. San Souci, Sergio Martinez



• Estrellita de oro / Little Gold Star: A Cinderella Cuento, by Joe Hayes, Gloria Osuna Perez, Lucia Angela Perez (New Mexico)

Hmmmm...I see no Eastern European or Russian Cinderella in this bunch! Guess I need to get busy!