Cinderella

There must be a ton of Cinderella adaptations out there, but here are a few that I've read and enjoyed:

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine- I greatly preferred the book to the movie (which was nothing like the book really). In this re-telling, Ella's obedience to her dreadful stepmother/sisters is explained by the fact that her fairy godmother gave her the 'gift' of obedience at birth. She ends up travelling to try and find her godmother to lift the curse and encounters all types of adventures along the way. This is one of my favorites for its strong, clever heroine.

Bound by Donna Jo Napoli - a re-telling of a Chinese Cinderella story, Bound combines the lyricism of the fairy tale with fascinating historical and cultural facts about the Ming dynasty. I loved Xing Xing and how dependable she was, and how cheerful and accepting she tried to be (in a non-preachy way). She was definitely someone I would want with me on an adventure!

Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey

Ash by Malinda Lo
Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon
Before Midnight by Cameron Dokey
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

Those are all ones I really enjoyed. Especially the first 2.

By the way... I can't stand Ella Enchanted. THERE I SAID IT BRING ON THE HATE!!

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley
Cinderella (As If You Didn't Already Know the Story) by Barbara Ensor
I Was a Rat! by Philip Pullman
The Glass Slipper by Eleanor Farjeon
If the Shoe Fits: Voices From Cinderella by Laura Whipple (a poetry sequence)
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love by Chris Roberson (a spin-off from the Fables comic series)
Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Oh! Wow!
I just took a look at your profile, guyalice, and note your special collection of re-tellings.

Freakin' single-minded love.

Bless you.

This isn't a direct adaptation of the Cinderella story, but there is a "Japanese Cinderella" tale (or monogatari) called The Tale of Lady Ochikubo. It's old, written around the 10th century, I think.

Tanith Lee has a couple of short story reimaginings of Cinderella. One is called "UOUS" and is in The Fair Folk anthology edited by Marvin Kaye. There's another one that I think is in Red as Blood or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer, that casts Cinderella and her late mother as Satanists, but I can't remember the name.

The Rough Face Girl is an Algonquin version of Cinderella. (I'd love to track down the original Algonquin tale, as well.)

Thank you, 2wonderY! It's always been a sub-genre that's been important to me, so it makes me very happy if someone else can find some use for it

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is something of a Cinderella story. I like it because "Cinderella" isn't just some damsel waiting around for her prince. She goes looking for him, and finds a pleasant surprise.

And I will admit, I loved Drew Barrymore's Ever After. I must have watched it a hundred times in high school. She had a nice step-sister and punched the other one; just what the other versions were lacking!

Oh, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters was one of the most beloved books from my childhood. My mother and I found it together mentioned on Reading Rainbow, I think? (Reading Rainbow ftw.)

I also loved the Cinderella interpretation, The Talking Eggs.

There was a set of beautifully illustrated Cinderella retellings by Shirley Climo: The Egyptian Cinderella, The Korean Cinderella, The Persian Cinderella, and The Irish Cinderlad.

I loved The Talking Eggs! The story was in one of my elementary school reading books, and I loved it so much that I copied it, via typewriter (I didn't think that it was illegal; I thought it was fun to use the typewriter). If memory serves, the ribbon got worn out when I was halfway through, so I never finished it, forgot the title, and went searching for the story ten years later by using the names of the characters.

I haven't seen Reading Rainbow in FOREVER. I miss that show.

#11 -- Speaking of beautiful illustrations and versions of the story from different cultures, check out Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman.

>13 foggidawn: -- Oh! I will; thank you!

Coming out in July is Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott. I've just finished reading the ARC, and it's definitely not like the traditional Cinderella - set in a fantasy version of antiquated Japan, the Cinderella character is after revenge for her family's betrayal and deaths.

How about The Twelve Months?　It's a movie in 1956, but I am sure it was based on a Russian tale play by Samuil Marshak (1943).

It's based on a Russian fairytale adapted for the stage, yes, but it has nothing at all to do with a retelling of Cinderella, which is the fairytale that's being discussed in this thread.

-a good hearted heroine's mother died, her father remarried
-stepmother has older daughter(s)
-they torment the girl
-the heroine got a help from fairy(s)
-her step family got punished for what they did

still not a "Cinderella" story...?

> 19: from what I could find in a quick search of the 'net, it sounds more like some of the Baba Yaga / Frau Holle stories (Aarne-Thompson type 480, "The Kind and Unkind Girls" -- there's a some more information at http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/diamondstoads/).
There are many of the same motifs as in Cinderella (AT 510), but folklorists would classify it as a different tale.

I'm interested in Russian literature and hadn't heard of Marshak's tale, so I'm glad for the tip.

Hmmm, I see that there are so many different versions on the same motifs. Thank you, spiphany.

Yamanekotei, as spiphany said, many fairytales may share the same or similar motifs without being the same tale. Fairytales are just as diverse and varied as any genre, but it can be harder to spot the differences because they do have a lot of visual overlap* and they're so short that there isn't much development.

* For example, the stepmother motif is extremely common. There's Cinderella, The Six Swans, The Twelve Months, Diamonds and Toads, The White Bride and the Black Bride, Brother and Sister, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Frau Holle, possibly One-Eye, Two-Eye, Three-Eye but that's still the biological mother, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Juniper Tree... I could go on.
Many of those also contain most of the other points you list in #19, but I dare bet you wouldn't say that most of those are a version of Cinderella. They're too different. If you look closer, they're actually very different stories, as spiphany pointed out. ^-^

It's just that the nature of this type of storytelling seems to come with a lot of overlap. Some stories (such as "The Two Brothers") even fall into multiple Aarne-Thompson types, presumably because storytellers combined various motifs to make their stories fresh and interesting again or because of the way oral transmission works in general. It's a fascinating subject and I know far too little about it, sadly.

You might find Propp's Morphology of the Folktale interesting, by the by. ^-^

I grew up with The Tale of Lady Ochikubo, and always thought it sounds similar to Cinderella.
If this story is listed as above(but it is NOT an adoption of, since it is older than Cinderella), I thought I can list The Twelve Months also, but since this falls under different story type, I take both of them back. I still love them anyway. Thanks for the future reading suggestion, Shanra.

BTW, I got Rafe Martin for the author... does it mean there is another TBR book for me?

That's cool that you grew up with Ochikubo; I only know of it because I found an English translation at an antique store for 50 cents.

Cinder is a new one worth mentioning. In this version, Cinderella's a cyborg.

I love the no-nonsense fairy tale heroines. I'm ordering Interstellar Cinderella from the library. She's a rocket ship mechanic. It also reminds me of another picture book I liked a lot, with a capable heroine who is appreciated for her abilities. Cinder Edna's passion is food production.

ps: I see from my catalog that I put The Dryad's Shoe in this same sub-category, but I don't recall having read it. (major family illness this spring explains my absent brain) I'll have to re-read it. It is available online.

Did Mercedes Lackey write another Cinderella take-off? I see her name in the author list on the right column, but not the title I've read.

The Fairy Godmother also portrays a heroine who is not satisfied with the trope that is supposed to play out, and she determines to take the more challenging path.

Looking at my titles mentioning Cinderella, I also find The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie, but I don't recall it as actually having a Cinderella theme. Instead, it has a standard romance trope - we strangers pretend to be married for a time and then fall in love.

There are also books written by a Marissa Meyer based on the fairytales- Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, winter and Fairytale