Childrens Book Review of Angkat: The Cambodian Cinderella by Jewell Reinhart Coburn and Eddie Flotte

Cambodia’s child of ashes carries the name Angkat. The Cambodian Cinderella does not have a mother figure until her lonely fisherman father marries a widowed mother. The second wife expects the catcher of the biggest fish to receive the honorary title of Number One child. Angkat quickly finds four fish but loses the three biggest through her stepsister Kantok’s thievery. She frees the small fish into the smallest of her father’s fish ponds before becoming the uncomplaining Number Two child of cleaning, cooking, and firewood-gathering chores. But her only happiness has a shelf life when Kantok makes Angkat’s pet fish lunch. The Spirit of Virtue nevertheless implores Angkat to hide the fish bones under her sleeping mat.

Angkat finds golden slippers in the morning. One slipper gets grabbed by a big black bird and subsequently tumbled into the palace courtyard’s gardens. The Crown Prince has all maidens try on the slipper. After collecting -- with the help of chickens -- rice upended in a field by her stepmother, fitting into the slipper, and producing the other, Angkat is married. But she leaves to visit her purportedly sick father. Father, stepmother, and stepsister murder Angkat. The crime scene ironically nurtures a red-leafed banana plant, which Angkat’s father removes to the forest. The prince shortly thereafter travels to the spot, from which he removes graceful bamboo. The Spirit of Virtue turns the bamboo back into Angkat.

The Cinderella fairy tale within Cambodia’s folklore dates back hundreds of years. Its first known European translation goes back to Le Conte de Cendrillon Chez les Cham (The Cinderella Tale among the Cham), by Alençon-born Frenchman Adhémar Leclère (May 12, 1853 – March 16, 1917), as:

• Diplomat;
• Economist;
• Ethnologist;
• Poet;
• Writer.  

It has as its most charming, colorful, contemporary update the China-printed, 1998-released collaboration, Angkat: The Cambodian Cinderella, by:

• Jewell Reinhart Coburn, as Southeast Asia-specialized recipient of a doctorate in Higher Education Administration;
• Edmund Flotte, as Philadelphia-born, Maui-relocated illustrator;
• Shen’s Books, as California-based publishers specializing in cultural diversity.

This “must-own” book -- intended for kindergarteners to third-graders -- includes watercolors which are based upon real-time Cambodian language-speaking models,

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

In the Cambodian Cinderella story, Angkat releases into her father's smallest fish pond a small fish, which she soon discovers is magical.
fish pond, National Museum of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, south central Cambodia: S B (S Baker), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbaker/55448688/

Angkat cherishes a short-lived friendship with a magical fish in the Cambodian Cinderella story.
fish depicted on Bayon temple, Angkor complex, ca. late 12th or early 13th century
Siem Reap, northwestern Cambodia: Greg Willis (gregw66), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gregw66/4184829431/

Chickens help Angkat to collect rice mischievously tossed into a field by Angkat's stepmother in the Cambodian Cinderella story.
Chicken crosses the road within Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex.
Siem Reap, northwestern Cambodia: Emilio Labrador (emilio labrador), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/3059349393/3688596737/

Among Angkat's physical arcs in the Cambodian Cinderella story is temporary transformation into a graceful bamboo plant.
bamboo stems, with some leaves; Cambodia; May 22, 2007: A of DooM (A_of_DooM), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/a_of_doom/510697845/

Coburn, Jewell Reinhart. 1998. Angkat: The Cambodian Cinderella. Illustrated by Eddie Flotte. Walnut Creek, California: Shen's Books.