Cinderella and Why Meat Loves Salt

I chose to compare Cinderella by Judy Sierra and Why Meat Loves Salt by Nina Jaffe.  Cinderella is basically the well known story picked up by Walt Disney while Why Meat Loves Salt is the Jewish version of the traditional Cinderella story.  I read through Cinderella just to remind myself of the story.  I thought it was a neat difference that the step mother and one of the step sisters called her "Cinderbottom" because she always sat in the ashes from the fireplace.  Int he Disney version, there is no explanation for why she is called "Cinderella."  Then when I started to read Why Meat Loves Salt I was confused.  The story does not start out similar to the traditional story at all.  Mireleh is the main character and she comes from the nucleus family consisting of her mother, father and two sisters.  Neither of her parents have passed away and her family loves her very much.  Then when Mireleh answers her father's inquiry as to how much she loves him with the statement, "As much as meat loves salt," he is unhappy with her answer and drives her from the house.  She meets a mysterious man along the way who gives her a magic stick to grant her any wish and goes to stay with a rabbi and his wife and son.  She decides she wants to attend a wedding with the family so she uses her magic stick to produce a dress and beautiful slippers.  The slippers are the one concrete similarity between the stories.  Most of the other details are different.  At the wedding the rabbi's son dances with Mireleh and tricks her into losing her shoe.  He, much like in the traditional tale, vows to marry the girl who fits the shoe and goes looking for the girl who is right in his own home.  She explains what she has done and after his parents have a dream about the mysterious man, he agrees to marry her.  At the wedding Mireleh tells the cooks not to put any salt into the food.  Mireleh's family comes to her wedding not knowing that it is their estranged daughter/sister who is getting married and when her father grimaces over the lack of salt on the meat he realizes that his daughter really does love him and everything works out in the end.   I liked this story, but it is very different from the Disney version that I am used to.  I thought it was kind of odd story because of the father testing his daughters and because of the drastic measures he takes without even asking her to explain her answer.  The art work was well painted with great colors.  The characters didn't have clear facial features and some of the lines were blurred.  I thought the illustrations portrayed the story very well.  This book was a neat look into Jewish culture and the traditions.  it mentioned the stomping of the glass and the use of hoopah's during wedding ceremonies.  It also mentioned the nature of most Jewish fathers and the way Mireleh's father through those feelings out the window when he was mad at Mireleh.  I think this is a great book to use when discussing other cultures and religions, especially if you happen to have a Jewish child in your classroom.