Ashpet: An Appalachian Tale

Ashpet: An Appalachian Tale, retold by Joanne Compton and illustrated by Kenn Compton, is an Appalachian version of the classic Cinderella tale. Ashpet is a serving girl living with the Widow Hooper and her two daughters, named Ethel and Myrtle. She is forced to all of the cleaning, cooking, and sewing while the widow and her two daughters do nothing. There is to be a church meeting with the whole town, and Widow Hooper, Ethel, and Myrtle go, but Ashpet has to stay home and do the chores. Granny comes to the house once the three Hooper women have gone to the meeting and helps Ashpet get her chores done. She even provides a beautiful outfit for Ashpet to wear. Ashpet goes to the meeting and meets the doctor’s son. Since she has to be home by midnight, Ashpet throws one of her shoes into the bushes so the doctor’s son will try to find her. This part is hilarious because it’s almost like she knows the version of Cinderella and that she must lose her shoe so he will have to bring it back to her. She runs home, and he comes the next day to find the beautiful girl who lost her shoe the night before. Widow Hooper’s two daughters try to fit their feet into the shoe, but it doesn’t work. Ashpet tries it on last, it fits, and they get married and live happily ever after.

The author has provided an Author’s Note at the beginning of the story, which is extremely useful. It gives the origins of the Cinderella story as well as which changes the author has made from the traditional story. At the end of her note, she encourages readers to compare it to other versions of the Cinderella story, which is a wonderful idea for young readers. It made me think of compare this story to the other Appalachian Cinderella story I read—Smoky Rose. Both authors make use of the Appalachian dialect, which allows readers to really visualize the characters. I also found a lot of similarities in the illustrations. The illustrations in both books weren’t particularly beautiful, but the expressions on the character’s faces were hilarious. For example, in this book, the three Hooper women are often depicted with their noses up in the air, showing how snobby they are and that the reader is not supposed to like them. The pictures in this book really reminded me of a cartoon.

One thing I found interesting about this version was that it is the only version I have read so far where the other daughters are asked to do any work. Widow Hooper asks first Myrtle and then Ethel to go to Granny’s house to get some fire. Neither girl will brush Granny’s hair, so they are both sent home empty-handed, and Ashpet finally has to go. This reminds me of another (maybe African in origin?) fairy tale I read when I was little. I can’t remember the title of it, but it was a Cinderella-like story where a woman sends her two girls to an elderly woman’s house to borrow eggs and neither girl can do it, so finally the Cinderella character has to go. I think that this happens in the German version, Aschenputtel, as well; if it’s not in that story, then it’s in another German fairy tale I’ve read.

Many aspects of this version are different from other versions in order to make it seem more true to America and Appalachia. For example, instead of a fairy godmother, Ashpet has Granny, who comes to the house and cleans it up with three taps of her cane. Granny also provides Ashpet with a dress and shoes to wear to the church meeting, just like the fairy godmother. Instead of a ball, there is a church meeting. This is much more appropriate to the setting than a ball would be. Additionally, the author mentioned that she had a doctor’s son instead of a prince because that is more believable. There generally aren’t princes in America, so having a doctor’s son makes the story both more believable and relatable to the reader. Finally, the bird that takes Ashpet’s shoe is like the bird in Shirley Klimo’s Egyptian Cinderella.