Books like Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale
By John Steptoe
For families who love fairy tales but want one rooted in a real place, with real history behind the magic — this Zimbabwe-inspired retelling gives Cinderella new roots and a new face. Regal, richly painted, and quietly moral — a fairy tale with the weight of folklore behind it.
Scarred from tending the fire, a girl and her two beautiful but cruel sisters all try to win the hand of a rich, powerful Invisible Being — but only his sister's watchful gaze can tell who has truly seen him.
A city kid worries that Santa can't visit her apartment building — no chimney, no room on the block for a sleigh and eight reindeer — until her family and community show her the Christmas spirit finds a way.
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.
After a long night delivering presents to every child in the world, Santa comes home to the North Pole — where his elves decide it's finally his turn to have a Christmas morning of his own.
A poor washerwoman on the island of Martinique uses her mother's magic wand to help her beloved goddaughter Cendrillon win the heart of a rich man's son.
A beautiful young cockroach must choose a husband, so her grandmother teaches her the Coffee Test — spilling coffee on a suitor's shoes to see how he reacts to anger.
A mistreated girl endures her stepmother's and stepsisters' cruelty until a fairy godmother steps in with magical help, leading her to a meeting with the prince.
A baby clown bounces off the circus train and lands in a lonely farmer's empty field, and the two unlikely companions spend a day together before the clown must find his way home.
A witch famous throughout Russia for eating children is secretly a lonely old woman who longs for a grandchild, so she disguises herself as a village babushka to find one.
A jealous queen orders a princess killed for being more beautiful than her, but a hunter spares the girl, who finds refuge with seven dwarfs — until a poisoned apple nearly finishes what the queen started.
The Emperor's youngest daughter is so small and overlooked that no one notices her — until he is captured and locked away in a high tower, and only she can save him.
Three traveling monks arrive in a war-weary village where suspicious neighbors hide their food and shutter their windows — until the monks offer to make soup from nothing but stones.
