Rachel Isadora's The Twelve Dancing Princesses is an African adaptation of the Brother's Grimm fairy tale. An African king had twelve beautiful daughters would sleep in the same bedroom. Every night, the king would lock their door and every morning the princesses' shoes were worn out. The king sent out a decree to his people that if any man were able to solve the princesses' mystery then he could choose any of the king's daughters to marry. However, if they failed to uncover their secret, the man would be killed. One day, a soldier passed an old woman on a side road and he told her of his plan to discover the princesses' secret. The old woman told the soldier not to drink the princesses' wine and then handed him an invisible cloak so he could follow the princesses. After the soldier arrived to the castle and pretended to drink the princesses' wine, the eldest princess tapped her bed and it sank into the floor. The soldier followed the princesses through a secret passageway and broke a twig from each of the three groves of silver, gold, and diamond leaves. Once the princesses arrived to a lake, they joined twelve princes, crossed the lake in twelve boats, and danced the whole night on an island. The following two nights, the solider followed the princesses and stole a cup to prove their secret. On the fourth day, the soldier tells the king where his daughters' sneak off to at night and shows him the three twigs and the cup as proof. After the princesses' told their father that the soldier was telling the truth, he decided to marry the eldest princess the very next day.
After my class finished reading all three versions of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, I would have my students compare and contrast all three of the books. Each of the three books enough similar and different aspects that the students should be able to have a detailed Venn Diagram or essay.
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