Cinderella – with Dogs

Fairy tales with a twist make for fun and playful stories that all ages can enjoy. Add cute and silly puppies and dogs to that mix, and you have an even more hilarious and delightful reading experience.

Cinderella – with Dogs! begins like the traditional Cinderella tale. Cinderella is home alone cleaning, with only cats to keep her company, while everyone else is out at a ball. But instead of a fairy godmother appearing, a fairy “dogmother” arrives instead! While Cinderella is at first hesitant to have a fairy dogmother, she knows how it feels to be unwanted, and so she embraces having a new pink tutu-wearing fairy dogmother. Her dogmother teaches her how to chase squirrels, and, when Cinderella asks her dogmother about going to the ball, the dogmother thinks they are going to play fetch. After Cinderella explains that it’s a different kind of ball, dogmother helps Cinderella get ready for the dance. She waves her magic wand and makes Cinderella a gown out of a dog blanket, does her hair like a poodle, and gives her dog booties to wear instead of glass slippers. Instead of taking a carriage to the ball, they run and howl all the way there. At the ball, everyone is shocked by Cinderella, her canine attire, and her dogmother. But everyone at the ball loves dogs too! The dogs at the ball swarm Cinderella with cuddles and dog kisses. To cap off the evening, Cinderella also dances with the prince.

He asked her to dance. She said yes.
Around and around they danced all evening,
and the dogs danced too.
The prince was enchanted!

The next day, the prince’s dogs track Cinderella with their noses to her house. The prince then asks Cinderella to marry him, but instead she suggests that they get to know each other first. And what better way to do that than to chase some squirrels!

Linda Bailey has created a humorous and fun fractured fairy tale. Little funny dog details are scattered throughout the story, such as the dogmother loving the smell of the dog blanket gown, the dogmother being jealous of the poodle hair but hating dog booties. The twist of not wanting to marry the prince after one evening of dancing and instead chasing squirrels modernizes the fairy tale while keeping with the dog theme.

Freya Hartas’ illustrations work in perfect tandem with the text. The digitally created illustrations are bright, colourful, and playful. She captures the details of the story like the fleece of the dog blanket and the too small booties which add further humour to the book. There is an adorable wide-eyed orange tabby from Cinderella’s house that follows Cinderella throughout the story, adding another level of storytelling beyond the written plot.

Cinderella – with Dogs! is an amusing and joyful story sure to delight animal lovers of all ages. It would be an entertaining read between caregiver and child. In the classroom, it would be a solid addition to a teacher’s fractured fairy tales collection. What other animal or themed fairy godmothers could there be? Cinderella – with Dogs! could be a great inspiration for students to write their own “Cinderella – with” stories.