Once upon a time a cruel King decided to betroth his motherless daughter to an Ogre in exchange for fifty wagons filled with silver. When the Princess learns what her father has done, she is horrified. But she is as clever as she is beautiful. Quickly, the Princess devises a plan to escape and, relying on her own spunk and good sense, ultimately marries the man she chooses for herself.

This is one variation of the Cinderella story. It is about a King who tries to force his Princess to marry an ogre. In this book, the heroine(the princess) doesn't rely on a fairy godmother to help her, but she plans ahead and helps herself instead. The story ends with her eventually marrying her King. It is actually based on "The Princess in Disguise." ( )

This is another fairy tale distinctly lacking magic, which again confuses me. The only "magic" in this story is her being able to fit three ballgowns into a walnut shell. In this version of Cinderella, "Princess Furball" doesn't have an evil stepmother, rather a greedy evil father who essentially sells her to an ogre. There are three balls, which is unlike the Cinderella I'm most familiar with but I'm aware that this isn't a new concept to the story. The three trinkets that Furball takes with her seem thrown in there, with only the ring holding any sort of significance to the story. I'm not sure if the trinkets each symbolize something, but I'm not getting it if they do. Like the story I'm familiar with, the prince falls in love with the princess based on her beauty with no real basis of love established. This story also differs in that this Cinderella was already a princess before marrying the prince. ( )

The Princess's father had forced his daughter's hand in marriage to an Ogre for five carts of silver. She ran away. She knew she would not be happy with an Ogre. The princess was found by hunters in a bundle of jackets, hence the name furball, and was put to work as a servant. Everyday, for 3 days, a ball held at the palace and she had three wonderful dresses to wear. She went to the ball and hurried back to the kitchen to be fur ball, the servant. The princess was hiding from the prince as furball, and was putting gold trinkets in the king's soup that she had made. The king loved her soup. I think the soup was the "slipper" in this story. It made the prince find out who she was because he really liked her soup and wanted to know who made it.
The theme of this story is to always be patient. The princess did not expect the prince to find out who she was and accept her. In the real world, the person who is least invested in something, actually ends up achieving it because they did not dwell on it. She knew it would fall into place. ( )

When her father demands she marry an ogre, the princess leaves home and becomes a kitchen maid, but captures the king's fancy through use of treasures from her dead mother. The pictures of the princess in the thousand-fur coat are wonderful! An author’s note details the background of this story version.