YA Retellings of Cinderella
In the traditional tale of Cinderella, she is the beloved daughter of a wealthy man who died. She is left alone to live with her evil stepmother and two stepsisters who treat her very poorly. On the day of a royal ball, a fairy godmother makes Cinderella's dream come true and she goes to the ball where she meets the Prince. Cinderella and the Prince fall in love, however Cinderella runs away when the clock strikes midnight and he is only left with a glass slipper to find her... and live happily ever after.
Here are some recommendations of modern retellings that take their inspiration from the tale, but add some twists.
Cinder
by Marissa Meyer
As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.Throne of Glass
by Sarah J.Maas
After she has served a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, Crown Prince Dorian offers eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien her freedom on the condition that she act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Mechanica
by Betsy Cornwell
An empowering adaptation of the Cinderella story features a young genius inventor whose stepfamily forces her into a life of servitude before she aspires to win a technological exposition.
Bound
by Donna Jo Napoli
In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child's feet so that she alone might marry well.
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
At her birth, Ella of Frell receives a foolish fairy's gift—the “gift” of obedience. Ella must obey any order, whether it's to hop on one foot for a day and a half, or to chop off her own head! But strong-willed Ella does not accept her fate. Against a bold backdrop of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and fairy godmothers, Ella goes on a quest to break the curse forever.
Just Ella
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.
Cindy Ella
by Robin Palmer
Sophomore iconoclast Cindy Gold publishes an anti-prom letter in her high school newspaper, but when she develops a crush on her SAT tutor, on top of the ones she already has on popular senior Adam Silver as well as a boy she has been exchanging instant messages with, she begins to doubt her own convictions.
Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.