‘Pepelina, The Slavic Cinderella’ follows an aspiring writer who, after the death of her father, is silenced and rejected, but she goes on a transformative journey with a story that can either bring destruction or peace.

Baba Jaga’s magic turned the wilted cabbage leaf into a beautiful cabbage leaf bag. Crusted with snow and snowflakes, the bag was shaped like a butterfly. When unfolded, it would reveal the bird’s story in all its beauty and elegance.

Pepelina twirled around, holding her manuscript cabbage bag tight. As she did that, Baba Jaga spotted more cabbage leaves, shredded and knit them together making Pepelina a long gown train with white cabbage veins that would trail elegantly behind her drawing the attention of everyone at the castle.

‘Now, the hardest part,’ said Baba Jaga.

She fixed her eyes on Pepelina’s ash covered ballet slippers. Pepelina noticed it straight away. Ashamed, she tucked her feet under the hem of her dress hoping Baba Jaga would leave her shoes be. After all, her shoes did not matter, not like the dress did.

‘No one will see them!’

‘Yes, but I saw it and that, my darling Pepelina, I cannot unsee,’ Baba Jaga muttered. ‘I want to see your feet again. Take off your slippers.’

Still, Pepelina hesitated. She did not want Baba Jaga to see her feet wrapped in cabbage leaves. But, as Baba Jaga tapped her cheeks with her finger, Pepelina took that as a sign and listened.

When Baba Jaga saw Pepelina’s blistered feet wrapped in cabbage and bandaged with linen, her mouth grew wide open. She quickly pointed her wand, and soon the wilted cabbage leaves became high heeled slippers. Crafted from ice, and colored in green and white, the shoes glowed in the darkness. On the counters of the shoes, just above the heel, Baba Jaga placed shining cabbage seeds. For the top part of the shoes, she used ice and snow and made green and white butterflies.

‘Baba Jaga, this is a dream come true,’ said Pepelina.

Excerpt From

Pepelina, The Slavic Cinderella

Written By Mary-Anne Frost

Pepelina is a young storyteller who writes stories in her father’s orchard. When her father dies, her writing heals her grief. Still, stepmother mocks her, burns her stories and forbids her to write. Desperate, Pepelina goes to the ball where she hands her story to the dream publisher who only wants to control her.
Wounded and rejected, Pepelina kneels in the ashes of her failures. The literary villains close in on her world with their many demands. Her only chance to write her way out of the ashes lies in the wings of fire, wings that can fan out the flames of a story powerful enough to break or heal the world.
This is a tale of literary slipper that fits one, befits many, and outfits any.

Book also available on Amazon, Kobo, Booktopia, Dymocks etc.

Mary-Anne Frost is a writer of fantasy stories and fairytale retellings. Born in Croatia, her love for stories started with her great-grandmother who told oral stories. Mary-Anne studied literature at University of Western Australia and completed various writing courses with Australian Writers Centre. She performed as oral storyteller at Perth Festival in 2025. Her stories are magical and empowering, rooted in folklore but blended with feminist experience. She lives in Perth and writes with her feline baby Felix.

Text and images © Mary-Anne Frost