The book Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is an African tale rewritten by John Steptoe. The story is comparable to the classic story of Cinderella. In this story, the a man named Mufaro lived in a small village with two very beautiful daughters , Manyara and Nyasha. While both daughters are equally beautiful, their personalities are completely opposite. Manyara is very self-centered and mean to Nyasha while Nyasha is very caring of all living things, kind, and sweet. She makes friends with a small garden snake and names him Nyoka. Even when Manyara is cruel to Nyasha, Nyasha only feels sorry for Manyara and does not tell their father. When the king sends out a notice that he is looking for "The Most Worthy and Beautiful Daughters in the Land . . . to appear before the King, and he will choose one to become Queen!" Both daughters will travel to see the king and see if one of them will be chosen to be his new wife. Out of greed, Manyara ran off in the middle of the night to get to the city and see the king before Nyasha in hopes of being chosen to be queen and make her sister work in the palace. One the way she runs into a small boy who is hungry and asks for food, she yells at the boy and continues on her way. Next she came upon an old woman who warned her about a grove of trees that she must be polite too. Instead of taking the old woman's advice, Manyaras yells, "How do you know my name? How dare you advise your future queen? Stand aside, you ugly old woman!" As she came to the grove of tress, instead of being polite, she mocked the trees by laughing at them. The next day, Nayasha left her village with her father to travel to see the king. When she came upon the poor boy, she gave him her food which she had brought for lunch. Next was the old woman, when she appeared and gave Nayasha the same advice, she thanked her and gave her a pouch filled with sunflower seeds. When she came to the grove of trees "their uppermost branches seemed to bow down to Nyasha as she passed beneath them." Once she reached the city and went in to see the king, sitting in the chair was Nyoka which turned out to be the king. He chose Nyasha to be is wife and Manyara ended up working as a servant for Nyasha.
This book has a great lesson in it for children about manners and respect. It is also a good book for diversity since many book have mainly Caucasians as the main characters. The illustrations in this book add a big part to the book. They are colorful and very detailed. The reader is able to see the emotions in the faces of the characters and follow the emotion throughout the book. It would be a great book for read aloud in the earlier grades and a good additive to the library section in grades 1-3rd. I really like the story in this book because of the morals it promotes. Students are encouraged to be polite and nice to everyone and this book provides an example of a character who is very caring to anyone and everyone, even her sister who is cruel to her at times, and is rewarded in the end. This book has received a number of awards including:
- Caldecott Honor Book
- Reading Rainbow Book
- ALA Notable Children’s Book
- Coretta Scott King Award (Illustrator)
- Boston Globe–Horn Book Award
- Horn Book Fanfare
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