Mufaro's Beautiful Daughter

Steptoe, J. (1987). Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. New York, NY: Amistad, Harper Collins.

A take on the traditional Cinderella. This one is based in an African village. Mufaro has two daughters Manyara and Nyasha who are both very pretty but opposites in every other way. Manyara is mean to her sister, making sure to only do it when her dad is not watching. She teases her telling her that one day she will be queen and her nice younger sister will be her maid. Nyasha, the nice younger sister, is unbothered by her sister's negativity. She sees the good and beauty in everything even in a snake that shows up in her garden one day. 

One morning a message comes from the nearby city that the king is looking for a wife. Mufaro believes either one of his daughters are worthy to be queen. He tells them to prepare to go to the city tomorrow.  Manyara sneaks away during the night trying to get to the king first. In a forest, she runs into a small boy and refuses to give him food when he asks. She then meets a woman who tries to give her advice. Manyara doesn't care to take the woman's advice to heart and laughed at a grove of trees and ignored a man with his head under his arm. 

Then next morning the wedding party that Mufaro put together notices that Manyara has disappeared. They go on towards the city to meet the king without her. Nyasha encounters the same people her sister did earlier but she being nice reacts differently. She gives the young boy food, gives the old woman some sunflower seeds, and doesn't have the same encounter the same reaction from the grove of trees. When she sees the city she is in awe of its beauty. Then her sister runs up to her and their father horrified. Manyara tells them there is a five headed snake who scared her by telling her of all her rudeness.  Nyasha continues on anyway and sees the snake from the garden. He tells her that he the king and he was the young boy in the forest as well as the old lady. Because Nyasha had been kind to them, the king would marry her. 

The wedding preparations were made. Nyasha married the king and Manyara became her maid. 

This was also a recipient of the illustrator award. The pictures are gorgeous and would delight young children during a read aloud. They help tell the story.  As a teacher, I have used this story when teaching how to compare and contrast different text. Teachers can also use it to show how authors include evidence in text to show character traits. It as a good story that has stood the test of time of being a worthy story that entertains young people. It is also a worthy book because of its diversity in characters. The African characters and setting offer diversity to children's literature.