Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Abby and Jonah have just come back from the story of Snow White, and don't really believe that the fairy Maryrose will transport them through the mirror again, but want to try. Abby even stays in her pajamas, hoping that this will make sure they travel somewhere exciting! She's right, and the two end up in the kingdom of Floom at the ball thrown by Queen Clarissa for Prince Jordan. They quickly figure out that this is the story of Cinderella, and follow her out of the castle at midnight. They think that things are okay, and just want to go home, but none of the mirrors in the castle worked. They ask Cinderella is they can try the mirrors in her house, but she is afraid that her stepmother, Betty, or her evil stepsisters, Kayla and Beatrice, will be angry. There's the typical drama about the prince wanting to marry someone, and a series of mishaps results in Cinderella's foot swelling up AND the remaining glass slipper being broken, so she dispairs of getting Prince Jordan to marry her. The three call on her fairy godmother, Farrah, who isn't willing to help! Farrah doesn't think that Cinderella should put all of her hopes on marrying, but should instead learn self-reliance. She agrees to help only if Cinderella can show she can stand on her own two feet and take care of herself, so that she can be an equal partner in marriage. Abby and Jonah help her make dinner for her family and introduce her to brownies, suggesting that maybe Cinderella can sell these at the market. Sales take off, and Cinderella meets Farrah's criteria for getting help, but Betty steals Farrah's wand and turns everyone into mice just as the prince is about to come to the house. She makes it so that Beatrice foot fits the slipper, and the prince asks her to marry him. Luckily, the spell is broken, and everything is explained. Jordan asks Cinderella to marry him, but she decides she likes being on her own, so Kayla agrees to marry him instead. Happy with how things have turned out, Farrah helps send Abby and Jonah back home to await further adventures with Maryrose.
Since I was never too happy with the Cinderella story myself (the version I told my daughters ended with Cinderella attending graduate school instead of marrying the prince), I loved this twist on the tale that includes a lesson in self-reliance. It was great that Abby and Jonah looked up apartment lists in Floom and used that as a basis for how much money Cinderella needed to make to move out on her own. I didn't feel bad at all that Kayla wanted to marry the prince, since the two did seem to share a connection, and Kayla had recently seen the error of her ways in being mean to Cinderella.
Crandall's illustrations are quite fun, and have a tiny bit of an anime feel around the character's eyes. Some of the jokes make more sense with illustrations; we can see that Abby's pajamas match the flag of Floom, and we can see everyone turned into very Disney-esque mice! They also are reminiscent of the covers of the original novels.
Fractured fairy tales that include a modern twist are always popular, and since the Whatever After series just recently wrapped up with volume 17, Mirror Mirror, these graphic novel adaptations are a good way to get a new generation of readers interested. Hand this to fans of E.D. Baker's The Frog Princess or Gail Carson Levine's Cinderellis and the Glass Hill.