The Fairy Tale Fixers: Cinderella: A Graphic Novel

by Deborah Underwood, Jorge Lacera (Illustrator)

Overview

The Investigators meet The First Cat in Space in this hilarious graphic novel. Fairy and Mouse will forever change young readers’ perspectives on stepmothers, princes, and pumpkins as they help Cinderella set things right when her carriage veers off course.

Every fairy tale needs a fairy. Because sometimes stories go off the rails, and this fairy knows just what to do to fix them.

Actually, he doesn’t . . . He makes it up as he goes along.

And sometimes he needs help. A lot of help. Which is where Mouse comes in.

Together, she and Fairy will make sure this tale has a happily ever after—just maybe not the one you expect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063242425
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/12/2025
Series:	The Fairy Tale Fixers , #1
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

Deborah Underwood has written numerous picture books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Quiet Book, The Loud Book!, and Here Comes the Easter Cat and the Caldecott Honor–winning Outside In. She lives in Northern California with her feline muse, Bella.

Jorge Lacera was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, and grew up in Miami, Florida, drawing in sketchbooks, on napkins, on walls, and anywhere his parents would let him. Jorge is a cofounder of #LatinxPitch (latinxpitch.com). In addition to his cocreated picture books with his wife, Megan, Jorge is also the illustrator of Xo, Exoplanet (written by Deborah Underwood) and Pruett and Soo (written by Nancy Viau).

Editorial Reviews

(The Fairy Tale Fixers: Cinderella) “Artfully retold. A funny, energetic riff on a familiar tale.” — Kirkus Reviews

(The Fairy Tale Fixers: Cinderella) “A refreshing take…[and] worthwhile update to a classic tale.” — Booklist

(Outside In) “Quietly profound…a comforting reminder that Outside will be there for us when we’re ready." — New York Times Book Review

(Outside In) “The atmospheric watercolors on these pages mesmerize. Now, more than ever, we need books to remind us that Outside 'beckons with smells, sunbaked, fresh, and mysterious.'" 

— NPR

★ (Outside In) "[A] love letter to nature....Lushness without sweetness—wild, darkly romantic, and exquisite." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

★ (Outside In) "This gorgeous celebration of nature is a stirring invitation to play."

— School Library Journal (starred review)

★ (Outside In) "A moving reminder that nature’s beckoning need not go unrequited." 

— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

★ (Outside In) "[A] gentle, unpreachy text that conveys the way modern life can be cut off from or blind to nature....Ink and watercolor art is gorgeously luminous." 

— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

★ (Outside In) "[A] lyrical and sensory exploration of the artificial separation between indoors and outdoors....Outside In is a beguiling, thought-provoking book that thinks outside the box." 

— BookPage (starred review)

★ (The Quiet Book) "A delightful and enchanting choice for storytime or sharing one-on-one." — School Library Journal (starred review)

From the Publisher

2025-05-03
Cinderella’s story, artfully retold and starring a pair of mice.

Cinderella toils for her demanding family day and night. Her stepsiblings shriek incessantly; even the household animals are losing sleep. So the house mouse enlists the Fairy Tale Fixer, a rodent detective in a trench coat who’s a bit clueless but always up for a challenge. The best way to end the noise is to get Cinderella out of the house, so the Fixer (donning fairy wings, a tiara, and a dress, the better to fit in) and the significantly smarter house mouse devise a plan to get her to the prince’s ball. Prince Edward turns out to be an incessant chatterbox, so the crew must improvise to extricate Cinderella from an unpleasant situation and help her achieve her real dreams. Cinderella’s freshly reimagined adventure departs skillfully from its source material. A running joke about the Fixer’s yearning for pancakes, various visual gags (including three characters standing on one another’s shoulders and disguising themselves with a long coat), the Fixer’s snarky internal monologue, and dramatic overreactions keep the energy buzzing throughout this graphic novel. Sketchy, playfully colored illustrations enhance the excitement. Cinderella and her family are brown-skinned; Prince Edward is tan-skinned and blond.

A funny, energetic riff on a familiar tale.(Graphic fantasy. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews