Abadeha: The Philippine Cinderella

I found a lot of similarities between Abadeha: the Philippine Cinderella, adapted by Myrna J. de la Paz and illustrated by Youshan Tang, and other Cinderella stories I have read. It tells the story of a girl whose mother dies and her father remarries a mean widow with two daughters. Abadeha is forced to work for her step-mother and is miserable. A spirit appears to her and helps her with her tasks. Eventually, Abadeha meets the son of the island chieftain who finds her via a ring instead of a shoe. They marry and live happily ever after. In the Author’s note, she talks about where this story came from and why she decided to write this book. This is helpful information for the reader.

This book had such beautiful language! For example, it starts out “Once upon a time in the islands called the Philippines, where sea stars bloom in a shimmering emerald sea, there lived a fisherman named Abak, his wife Abadesa, and their beautiful daughter Abadeha.” Although I have never been to the Philippines, I can picture the ocean and the islands because of how de la Paz describes them. There also seems to be a good infusion of Philippine culture into the story. For example, the Spirit of the Forest gives Abadeha a sarimanok, which I assume is a type of native Philippine bird. The description of the scenery and setting also infuses more of the Philippines into the story.

One detail that I thought was different from other Cinderella stories is that the step-mother realizes that her daughters were “plain and mean-spirited…compared to Abadeha’s beauty and kindness.” While I think this is alluded to in the Disney version of Cinderella, I’m not sure I’ve seen it mentioned in any of the other versions I have read. This story also seemed to be more mystical than the other Cinderella stories. The Spirit of the Forest is assisted by other spirits, which does not happen in other versions.

This book shared a lot of details with other versions, such as Shirley Climo’s Korean Cinderella. For example, the girl in both stories is given a series of impossible tasks to complete, and they both get help from an unearthly being. In this story, Abadeha has to wash two handkerchiefs until the white one turns black and the black one turns white. This is impossible, but she cries to her mother, and the Spirit of the Forest comes to help her. Domitila, the Mexican Cinderella, also receives help and guidance from a spirit. Both of these spirits are kind of like the fairy godmother who comes to help in other versions of Cinderella. At one point, the Spirit of the Forest claps three times to summon other spirits, which is like when Granny taps her cane three times and has the house cleaned for Ashput.

There are also differences between this story and other Cinderella stories. For example, there is no ball. Instead, Abadeha has a tree with jewelry and gowns on it. The chieftain’s son sees it and picks a ring off of it, which is a substitute for Cinderella’s shoe. The ring gets stuck on his finger and makes it hurt. He can’t get it off and has a dream that a girl must help him take it off. Abadeha is the only person who can remove it.

While this has not been my favorite version of Cinderella so far, it is a good read!