Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story by Tomie dePaola

• Title: Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story 
• Author: Tomie dePaola
• Publishing: Puffin Books, Reprint Edition. August 3rd, 2004. 
• Synopsis: In the story of Adelita, there lived a merchant names Francisco and he was married to a lovely woman named Adela. Adela announced one day that she was going to have a baby and Francisco was so happy. Sadly, Adela died shortly after the baby was born and this caused much grief on Francisco and a family friend Esperanza. Adela's daughter Adelita grew up to be a beautiful woman and Francisco loved her so. One day, Francisco announced that he was getting married to a woman named Señora Micaela. This seemed to be good news, until Francisco suddenly died and Adelita was left with Doña Micaela and her daughters Valentina and Dulce who were all very cruel to her. One day, Doña Micaela received an invitation from Señor and Señora Gordillo to attend a party for the purpose of finding their son Javier a wife. Adelita was not allowed to go to the party and had to stay home. Suddenly, the family friend Esperanza takes on the role of the fairy godmother. With her help, Adelita had something beautiful to wear and was disguised in her mother's beautiful shawl. Adelita arrives at the party and Javier falls madly in love with her. At midnight, Adelita vanishes into the night with only the memory for Javier of the beautiful shawl. The next day, Javier spies the beautiful shawl in Adelita's window and the two live happily ever after. 
• This books is unique and special in that although the book is mostly written in english, there are a few words throughout the story written in Spanish including character names. The illustrations in the story are very distinct of Tomie dePaola with many colors and geometric shapes found everywhere that make the book distinct. 
• I think this book is a wonderful retelling of the classic Cinderella with a twist to include Mexican heritage. I thoroughly enjoy stories that take a twist on a classic and this book would be a great one to use in the classroom when you want to include some multicultural literature. 
• While reading this book the most obvious activity I thought of to do with my students would be to use a compare and contrast Venn Diagram with my students to compare the traditional Cinderella with Adelita. I feel that this would be a good activity because it would not only help to improve children's comprehension and reasoning skills, but it would also help them to recall details of the story. I would also teach a mini lesson on the different Spanish words used in the story and have my students create Spanish word flash cards with the word from the story printed on one side and the english translation and a picture of the word on the other. That way the students can practice their new vocabulary that they learned from the book. 
• Online I found a video of an actual reading of Adelita that students could access to hear the story again at home. The YouTube link can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn0oELfvIYs
• I would also like to do a mini lesson on the creative process of Tomie de Paola's unique illustrations. Luckily on his website, he goes into detail on his creative process from which I would have my students create works of art in the same process as a fun activity. There is a link to Tomie dipole's website here: http://www.tomie.com