Spider in the sky Book

The youngest of the three daughters of a widowed hunter, Sootface was made to do all of the hard work by her elder sisters, and ridiculed for the dirty appearance that resulted from her constant attendance to the fire. Despite this mistreatment, and her poor appearance, she never gave up on her dream of finding a husband. When the mysterious invisible hunter who lived across the stream from her village announced that he would marry any maiden who could see him, and describe his bow, every girl in the village made an attempt to win him as husband, all to no avail. Then Sootface, clothed only in the finery provided by the forest, crossed the river and, through her kind and honest heart, won her heart's desire...

One of a number of picture-book retellings of this widespread Native American folktale with which I am familiar - see also: Rafe Martin's The Rough-Face Girl and Terri Cohlene's Little Firefly: An Algonquian Legend - Sootface: An Ojibwa Cinderella Story pairs an engaging story from author Robert D. San Souci with appealing artwork from illustrator Daniel San Souci. According to the author's brief note, the sources consulted for this telling include C.G. Leland's Algonquin Legends of New England , E.N. Patridge's Glooscap the Great Chief and Other Stories of the Micmacs , and Idries Shah's World Tales . The artwork was meticulously created after research at the Anthropology Department of UCLA, and reflects the clothing, design and setting of an 18th-century Ojibwa village. I have not yet read the Rafe Martin telling of this tale, but I can certainly say that I infinitely preferred this version from the San Soucis to that done by Cohlene, which I have also reviewed. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to readers interested in the 'Cinderella' tale type in world lore.