Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Cinderella like you've never seen her in wild, magical romp.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Twelve-year-old Filomena Jefferson-Cho leaves her loving parents and her comfortable home in North Pasadena to join her friends from the land of Never After in an urgent quest to recover THE STOLEN SLIPPERS. The glass ones that Cinderella, who is Not A Nice Person, stole from one of her stepsisters, their rightful owner, and plans to use to lure Prince Charming -- who's actually in love with the stepsister -- into marriage. Which is all part of the ogres' plan to destroy Never After. Filomena and her friends may be the beleaguered world's only hope, but the forces arrayed against them are powerful, deadly, and just plain mean.
Is It Any Good?
It's complicated but never dull as 12-year-old Filomena finds that very little of what she knows about Cinderella -- or Beauty and the Beast -- is exactly correct, and takes on the job of setting the story straight. As she and her pals rush to restore The Stolen Slippers to their rightful owner -- who isn't Cinderella -- things are often not what they seem, or what we're led to believe. With ogres bent on finishing their gory conquest of the once-happy Never After, it's a dangerous, treacherous, and funny adventure -- which wraps up just long enough to set up the next installment.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how The Stolen Slippers takes a well-known fairy tale and claims to tell the real version, which is usually quite different. Why is this theme so popular? Do you like this kind of storytelling? Does any book or series do this particularly well, in your opinion? What do you like about it?
How do you like the descriptions of Korean food? What's interesting and fun about reading about various cultures' foods?
If you could travel to the world of a book you like and live there as long as you wanted, which one would you pick? What do you like about it? What do you think you'd do there?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Fantasy
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic , Fairy Tales ) , Adventures , Friendship
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Roaring Brook Press
- Publication date : February 1, 2022
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 10 - 14
- Number of pages : 336
- Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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