The Cinderella Story

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The Cinderella story is a famous one. Cinderella was living happily with her family when her mother died. Her father remarried. Cinderella’s new stepmother and two stepsisters treated her poorly. She had to wear old clothes and work hard while the sisters wore fancy clothes and had fun.
You know the rest of the story. A good fairy helped Cinderella. She turned Cinderella’s old clothes into a beautiful dress. Cinderella went to a party and a prince fell in love with her. Cinderella left the party in a hurry and didn’t tell the prince her name. But she did leave a glass slipper and the prince used that to find her. Eventually, Cinderella and the prince married and lived happily ever after.
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That’s one telling of the story, but the Cinderella fairy tale is found in many different countries with minor differences. In an African version, for example, there is one stepsister, not two. In a version from the Philippines, a forest spririt helps the Cinderella character. Settareh, a Middle Eastern Cinderella, goes to a New Year’s party. And Cinderella is not always a woman. In an Irish story, a young boy, Becan, marries a princess and lives happily ever after.
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There are also modern retellings of the Cinderella story. In one, a girl named Cindy Ella is a student at a Los Angeles high school. Her fashionable stepmother and older stepsisters care a lot about shopping and money. Cindy doesn’t. when she writes a letter to her school newspaper against a school dance, she becomes very unpopular with both students and teachers. Only her two best friends—and later the school’s most handsome boy—support her.
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Why is the Cinderella story so popular and found in so many cultures? There are several reasons. First of all, it’s a romantic story, which is a popular style. Also, Cinderella is a kind girl with a hard life. That makes people want to root for her. But maybe most important is that in the Cinderella story, a person faces many challenges but overcomes them in the end. That’s a story that everyone—boy or girl, young or old—wants to believe can come true.


Read the story and write the headers below in the correct places in the reading. Two headers are extra.