Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: 

                        An African Tale

Manyara and Nyasha are two beautiful daughters, but Manyara is cruel and vain while Nyasha is loving and selfless. One day they learn the king seeks a wife, and though Manyara is determined to be queen, she is revealed to be a selfish person, while Nyasha proves herself worthy of the throne.

I read Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters to my fourth graders not only as a comparison to Cinderella, but also as character studies. They really enjoyed the book; getting into the characters, voicing their opinions as I read, and  predicting different scenarios. We talked about kindness and relationships. This was a great lesson! 

I put the book into our classroom library and I brought out a puppet I had made of Nyasha. I really thought the kids would make comments that they were too old for puppets-but I noticed that they would lay on their tummy's with pillows and puppet near them, and read to each other! Just proves-you are never to old!