Fair, Brown, and Trembling

Bibliographic Information: Doyle, M. (2000). Fair, Brown, and Trembling. Tales From Old Ireland. (pp.16-29). New York, NY: Barefoot Books.

Brief Annotation: Trembling lives with her two older, mean sisters. They think that she is too beautiful to be seen by the public and that she will distract any man from the two of them. So instead of being able to go to church as Trembling wishes, she is to stay home and do house work. With the help of the hen wife, Trembling is able to go to church three times, each in a beautiful gown and grabbing the attention of the men in town. On the third day a prince from a different land comes to see the beautiful girl he has heard so much about, but as mass ends and Trembling is on her horse home, he tries to catch her. Instead of grabbing her, he grabs one of her shoes, which is pulled off. This shoe is all he has left of the beautiful girl he wants so badly to meet; will he be able to find her simply by her shoe?

Genre: Fiction, Folktale, Picture book

Grade Level:K-6

Readers who will like this: Children who like the story Cinderella; Children who go to church; Children who have two older sisters; Children who like happy endings.

Response/Rating: 3; I found it especially shocking that the story of Cinderella told in Ireland is about a girl who wishes to attend church. This version of the story was nice to read with patchwork like illustrations.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Do you have siblings? Do you get along with them?