Books like Fanny's Dream
By Caralyn Buehner
Fanny's Dream has that great moment where the fairy godmother never shows and something else does, and the ball plans go sideways in the best way. Kids who've heard a dozen Cinderella stories catch on fast that this farm girl is writing her own ending. Here are more books for when happily-ever-after takes the scenic route.
Fanny wants a prince; Mirandy wants the wind itself as her dance partner. Same stubborn, joyful reaching for something impossible in Mirandy and Brother Wind by Patricia C. McKissack.
Julia's House Moves On by Ben Hatke keeps that same house full of odd, loyal creatures, but now the whole home has to figure out where it belongs next.
No fairy godmother speech here at all. Sector 7 by David Wiesner tells its whole friendship-with-a-cloud story in pictures alone.
Fanny gets her happy ending from an unexpected stranger, and in Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats the surprise comes from a flock of birds instead.
Less whimsy, more weight. Islandborn by Junot Díaz asks a kid to imagine a place she can't remember, using family stories instead of fairy godmothers.
Fanny dreams big while everyone around her stays practical, and Frederick by Leo Lionni gives that same daydreamer a mouse who gathers words instead of seeds.
Reach for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig when you want the same magical-wish setup but a bigger scare and a warmer, family-reunion ending.
Fanny gets swept into her own big moment; in The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco, it's half the town swept into a chase after a jar of honey.
Less swoony, more silly. The Funny Thing by Wanda Gág solves its problem with invented food instead of true love, and gets just as happy an ending.
A girl named Treva notices her family's Christmas decorations and presents mysteriously vanishing, and when she tracks down the culprit, she finds two trolls who have never had a Christmas of their own.
The true story of Tony Sarg, a self-taught puppeteer whose childhood love of inventing gadgets and moving figures led him to create the giant helium balloons that still float above the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Fanny gets overlooked until someone changes everything for her. The Emperor and the Kite by Jane Yolen flips it: the overlooked daughter is the one who does the rescuing.
