Marcia Brown: "Cinderella"

Tipping my hat to Marcia Brown, a gay woman who was born not far from where I was born.

Brown became the first person in history to win three Caldecott Medals. (To this day, only one other person has earned that distinction, David Wiesner.)

My love for Marcia Brown has to do with her classic re-telling of "Cinderella." This is a tale without true monsters; the stepsisters can be awful, but they're not on par with Snow White's evil queen. (Brown makes them silly and pitiable, like eccentric aunts in a Jane Austen novel.)

The most interesting thing about Cinderella is that she forgives, she shows mercy. After she marries, she invites the stepsisters to live with her in the royal palace, and she finds them positions within society. Kindness is "lending someone your strength"; Cinderella seems to have written the book on kindness.

I'm moved by the Prince kneeling before the maiden, and by the stepsisters accepting a gift of peaches at the royal ball.

Brown lived a long "out" life, and though her Perrault retelling came about a few decades before I was born, that retelling is still read--and still praised--today.

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