Fairest of All is the first book in the Whatever After series, written by Sarah Mlynowski. It was published on May 1, 2012.
Synopsis[]
Once upon a time, my brother and I were normal kids. The next minute? The mirror in our basement slurped us up and magically transported us inside Snow White's fairy tale.
I know it sounds crazy, but it's true.
But hey — we're heroes! We stopped Snow White from eating the poisoned apple. Hooray! Or not. If Snow White doesn't die, she won't get to meet her prince. And then she won't get her happy ending. Oops.
Now it's up to us to:
- Avoid getting poisoned
- Sneak into a castle
- Fix Snow White's story
- And then, fingers crossed, find our way home.
Preview[]
To read the first chapter, click here[1].
Storyline[]
Abby's family has just recently moved to Smithville from Naperville. Abby was having a hard time adjusting to her new school because the kids there call pop soda, mash their bananas and peanut butter into a big gooey mess on their sandwiches, and play freeze tag very “wrongly”, instead of the way she did in Naperville. Frustrated with these new changes, Abby goes to the library to calm down where she expresses her love for fairytales.
That night, Abby is awoken by her brother Jonah, much to the former's annoyance. Earlier, Jonah was playing "flying crocodile" in the basement before accidentally knocking into a large mirror. He claims that the mirror glowed and hissed when he made contact with it. Confused, Abby follows Jonah to the basement, where Jonah knocked on the mirror three times and proved his claims to be true. The mirror unleashes a powerful vacuum that swallows Abby, Jonah, their parents' law books, and a swivel chair.
The mirror transports the siblings and furniture into the middle of the woods. While Jonah is still dawdling, Abby is trying to figure out where they are, how they got there, and how to go back home. When the two hear the threatening growls of a wild animal, they run away. Later, Abby and Jonah find an old lady selling apples. They try to ask the lady for directions, but the rude lady turns them away. They follow the grumpy old lady to a cottage in the middle of the woods where she offered an apple to a teenager who lives there. When Jonah realizes that the lady has only one apple despite claiming she is selling multiple, the siblings get suspicious and start to question the lady. The lady starts to sweat, causing her disguise makeup to melt away. The girl in the cottage then recognizes the lady and pleads for her to leave her alone, so the lady storms off. Abby devises a new plan to borrow the other girl's phone to call home, so she knocks on the door and asks the girl to let them in. After some persuasion, the girl reluctantly lets the siblings come inside.
The cottage girl's name is Snow, and she unfortunately doesn't have a phone. After some input from Jonah, Abby finally realizes that Snow is indeed the real Snow White, and that the mirror somehow transported the siblings into Snow White's story. The old lady they encountered earlier was actually Evil Evelyn, Snow's stepmother in disguise, who was plotting to assassinate her with a poisonous apple. Previously, Evelyn ordered Xavier the huntsman to kill Snow, but Xavier spared her and allowed her to escape.
Just then, the seven dwarfs enter the room: Alan is the oldest, Bob has bushy hair, Jon is very handsome, Stan has large teeth, Tara has a braid, Enid has pink hair, and Frances has a cane. When Snow tells the dwarfs about how Abby and Jonah saved her from her stepmother, the dwarfs thank them and offer for them to stay at their house. Abby hesitates, wanting to return home as soon as possible, but she agrees to stay with Snow and the dwarfs.
Abby, Jonah, Snow, and the dwarfs have dinner together, eating Snow's gross stew. Abby explains how she knows who Snow and the dwarfs are, recapping Snow White's fairy tale. Abby reveals that when Snow White dies from the poisoned apple, a prince will revive her and the two will marry. The dwarfs cheer hearing Snow's destiny to marry a prince. However, Abby then realizes that because she and her brother stopped Evil Evelyn from poisoning Snow, the prince won't save her and the two will never get married.
Even though Snow doesn't mind living with the dwarfs for the rest of her life, Abby is insistent to fix the fairy tale and unite Snow with the prince, known as Prince Trevor. She learns that Snow's stepmother visits the dwarfs' house daily to try to kill Snow, Abby plans to purposefully allow Evil Evelyn to poison Snow so that Prince Trevor can revive her. The next morning, Evil Evelyn arrives at the doorstep, disguised as a little girl and offering cookies. Abby encourages Snow to accept the poisoned cookies so she can eventually be revived later. Snow is about to take a bite out of a cookie when Abby sees Evelyn swinging a hammer behind her back. Abby immediately pushes Snow out of the way, saving her from being crushed. Abby shuts and locks the door; when Evelyn tries to break down the door, Abby, Jonah, and Snow build a blockade of furniture against it. Finally, Abby threatens to splash Evil Evelyn with boiling water if she refuses to leave, despite not having any boiling water in the house. At that, Evil Evelyn reluctantly left.
After failing to allow Snow to get poisoned, Abby, Jonah, and Snow travel back to the spot in the woods where Abby and Jonah was first transported to. They check the area for a possible portal back home, but they don't find any. After remembering about Evil Evelyn's magic mirror, Abby realizes that it must have the power to bring her and Jonah back home. On the way back to the dwarfs' cottage, Snow thinks of a new plan where she only pretends to be poisoned so that the prince can find her.
For the next four days, Abby, Jonah, and Snow wait on top of a hill. Snow lies inside a box and pretends to be dead so that Prince Trevor can arrive and "revive" her. On the second day of this routine, a suspicious pillow appears inside the box, which Abby and Jonah realize must be a trap set by Evil Evelyn. Before they can warn Snow, she lies down on the pillow, which promptly explodes and singes Snow's hair.
To pass the time, Snow reads Property Law 101, one of Abby's parents' law books she found abandoned in the forest. She learns about wills, which dictate who owns someone else's possessions after they die. Fed up from waiting, Abby writes a letter to Prince Trevor to come to Snow's former palace, hoping that Trevor will find Snow along the way. Finally, on the fourth day of waiting, they see Prince Trevor arriving near the hill they are camping out at. However, he ignores the box and leaves because Snow was not inside the box at all. Instead of lying in the box and feigning death like she was supposed to, Snow hid behind a tree because she was too shy to meet the prince. This breaks the last straw for Abby; she is tired of living in the middle of the woods to help Snow, only to continue failing. Snow offers to help Abby and Jonah sneak into her stepmother's castle and use her magic mirror to return home.
The three sneak into the castle while Evil Evelyn is away to receive her biweekly back massage. They get there by riding the dwarfs' horse Yopopa, who they tie to a tree when they arrive. However, the smart Yopopa unties the knot binding him to the tree and runs off. To avoid being recognized, Snow disguises herself with a pointy pink hat, Abby's green pajamas, and concealing her iconic red lips with flour. They get past the guard Arnaldo by claiming they are decorators assigned to renovate the palace. The three sneak inside Evil Evelyn's bedroom, where they meet Gabrielle the magic mirror. Gabrielle agrees to bring Abby and Jonah home, but Jonah feels a bit disappointed to leave without accomplishing anything. Gabrielle tells them to leave right now, revealing that Evil Evelyn is coming home early and will be in the room in less than thirty seconds. She also reveals that Evelyn imprisoned both Xavier the huntsman and Prince Trevor, the latter of which she imprisoned because she believed the prince was trying to overthrow her. Abby feels guilty for writing Trevor the false letter causing him to be locked up, so she insists on freeing the dungeon prisoners. Needing to escape the room before Evil Evelyn arrives, Abby uses one of her bedsheets to allow Snow and Jonah to climb down from the window. To get Abby down, Snow and Jonah hold the bedsheet for Abby to jump and land safely in.
However, Evil Evelyn sees the trespassers from her bedroom window and calls her guards. Abby, Jonah, and Snow run away as guards shoot arrows at them. They look for their horse Yopopa to get away on, but he untied himself and was already long gone. The three ultimately escape the guards by climbing and hiding in a tree. With their new goal to rescue Xavier and Trevor, the three devise a plan to sneak back into the castle again and free them. Abby remembers an odd key Evil Evelyn always wears as a necklace, and realizes that the key must open the dungeon cells. They sneak back to the castle at night, but they have to swim across the moat because the drawbridge is up. On the way across, they encounter a hungry crocodile named Crowly as well as her baby. The crocodiles are about to devour Abby, Jonah, and Snow when Jonah tosses the stew sandwiches in his bag for the crocs to eat instead.
Jonah climbs the castle wall to reach Evil Evelyn's window, with Abby reluctantly following him. Meanwhile, Snow keeps watch on the ground. Abby approaches a sleeping Evil Evelyn to take her key. She also asks Gabrielle if Snow's deceased father had a will, which Gabrielle reveals it hidden behind her mirror. Jonah retrieves the will document while Abby cuts Evelyn's necklace to grab her key. Abby and Jonah then run to the first floor and open a window so Snow can enter from outside. The three go to the dungeon and find Xavier and Prince Trevor, freeing them both. However, the castle alarm gong goes off, alerting the castle of the intruders.
Snow lowers the drawbridge so her friends can run across and flee the castle. However, Arnaldo and the other guards block them from the drawbridge, and Evil Evelyn blocks the other way. Abby believes she is hopeless until Jonah reminds her about Snow's father's will. Abby reads the will out loud, revealing Snow's father's wish for Snow to become queen and inherit his property after his death. At this revelation, Evil Evelyn's guards turn against her and attack her, but not before Evelyn aims an arrow at Snow. Prince Trevor jumps in the way and intercepts the arrow, which skewers itself into his chest. He then falls into the moat water, so Snow, Abby, Jonah, and Xavier jump in after him. The crocodiles are about to devour all five of them when the dwarfs appear and toss stew sandwiches to distract the crocs. It is revealed that Yopopa escaped earlier to call the dwarfs for backup.
Back ashore, they grieve over Prince Trevor's dead body. However, a determined Snow kisses Trevor, which awakens him. When asked about it, Snow states that she didn't exactly kiss him, but rather perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Trevor thanks Snow for saving his life, and Snow thanks Trevor for shielding her from the arrow. Trevor proposes marriage to her, but Snow declines because they only just met. Instead, she offers for them to develop their relationship over time before marrying. The dwarfs are invited to live in the castle, and Evil Evelyn is locked away in the dungeon.
Abby and Jonah consult Gabrielle and ask why the mirror in their basement brought them to this world. Gabrielle tells her to ask Maryrose, the spirit inside the basement mirror. She also warns them not to tell their parents about their adventures. Finally, Gabrielle opens a portal, and the siblings are transported back to their basement.
When they get back home, it is 6:30 AM, giving Abby thirty minutes to rest until she needs to prepare for school. Abby notices something different about her jewelry box, which depicts images of fairy tale characters. The picture of Snow White has changed, now showing her wearing Abby's own pajamas and reflecting the adventure Abby had with her. When she is having breakfast with her family, Abby's mom notices that the siblings are both dirty, so she tells them to take showers. While Abby is going to the bathroom to take a shower, she hears strange voices from the basement calling her name. Abby wonders if the voice is Maryrose calling her, and she plans to investigate the mirror later that night.
Praise for Fairest of All[2][]
"A magic mirror, a slightly bossy sister and her inquisitive 7-year-old brother captivate in this rollicking remake of a classic fairy tale...The result is an uproariously funny read. The swift pace of the tale and non-stop action combined with Abby’s quick wit will enchant readers from the first page." — Kirkus Reviews
"This delightful kickoff to the Whatever After series demonstrates Mlynowski’s prowess at writing for middle-graders...cleverly tangled and quite funny." — Publishers Weekly
"Sarah Mlynowski's spunky heroine injects some girl-power into Snow White for a wonderful reading adventure the whole family will enjoy. Tons of fractured fairy tale fun!" — Meg Cabot, author of Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls and the Princess Diaries
"I tore through Fairest of All in one sitting and loved, loved, loved it! It’s inventive, hilarious, and full of adventure and surprises." — Leslie Margolis, author of the Maggie Brooklyn Mysteries
"Giddy, fizzy, hilarious fun!" — Lauren Myracle, author of Luv Ya Bunches
Appearances[]
Characters[]
Locations[]
Objects[]
- Gabrielle's Mirror
- The furniture in the The Dwarves Cottage
Gallery[]
.png "Abby (Fairest of All).png (54 KB)")
References[]
| Whatever After Books | |
|---|---|
| Books | Fairest of All • If the Shoe Fits • Sink or Swim • Dream On • Bad Hair Day • Cold as Ice • Beauty Queen • Once Upon a Frog • Genie in a Bottle • Sugar and Spice • Two Peas in a Pod • Seeing Red • Spill the Beans • Good as Gold • Just Dance |
| Special Editions | Abby in Wonderland • Abby in Oz • Abby in Neverland |