Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella

The Hmong don't have Kings and Queens, or princes or princesses so this story is based more on village life. I lived in Thailand and visited the Hmong areas so I'm glad to see this book. I enjoyed it and so did my students.

I reviewed a series of Cinderella stories several months ago, but now that Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" features Hmong people, I thought I would pull "Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella" to the front for a little publicity and discussion of the Hmong. This is the summary sentence that appears in the Dewey Decimal system to describe the book: "Despite a cruel stepmother's schemes, Jouanah, a young Hmong girl, finds true love and happiness with the aid of her dead mother's spirit and a pair of special shoes" (found on verso page, or back of title page). Listen to this: One day when returning from market to buy a cow so necessary in harvesting in the mountains of Laos (the ancient home of the Hmong), the mother pulls her husband aside. She proposes the most daring act of self-sacrifice imaginable: She will turn herself into a cow in order to save the family. The three--father, daughter, and cow/mother-- work hard to make the place prosper--Sure enough, when the farm could support another, the father marries a second wife with a daughter the same age as Jouanah (which means "a young orphan"), keeping his first wife as a working cow. The new wife is very jealous of Jouanah and the cow, insulted at "taking second place to a cow!" The illustrations are gorgeous, although the second wife bellowing is not a pretty sight. In fact, the delicate beauty of Jouanah (pronounced JO-a-nah) is in stark contrast to the angry harshness of the new wife, who looks like a beast! To end her jealousy, the second wife uses subterfuge to trick her husband into sacrificing the cow to save her life (although she is pretending to be ill). Of course, afterwards, Jouanah is given the difficult, dirty tasks to complete while her new "sister" sulks and does nothing. Eventually, the village holds its annual festival to which Jouanah is prevented from going. However, in her sewing basket--voila--her dead mother's spirit appears to bring new clothes which make Jouanah look even more radiant than she already does. The village Elder's son falls for Jouanah, finds her shoe, and the rest of the story happens. What sets this particular story apart is the history of those involved in creating it. The author studies cultures, the illustrator lived with her parents (medical missionaries) for a while in a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand in 1979, and the two consultants work with the Hmong and for schools in California where many Hmong live. The clothing in the story represents the Blue Hmong clan. (However, the reason I deducted one star is that everyone, male and female, wears almost identical costumes with no explanation for the reason.) Other information for the creation of the story and illustrations came from photographs and videos provided by the Hmong community of Santa Barbara, California.

Jouanah is a Hmong folktale which encompasses many of the elements of the oft told Cinderella, however, it also has unique variations which reflect the Hmong culture. In this tale, Jouanah's mother plays a crucial role as well as the evil stepmother and her daughter. It leaves the reader with the warm feeling of good triumphing over evil. The illustrations capture the style of the Blue Hmong Clan and the terrain of Southeast Asia in a dreamlike way.