The Brother's Grimm version. There is no Fairy God Mother and Cinderella has to do the work and magic herself. Despite how charming the Disney and other version are, the Grimm version sticks in my mind from when an elementary teacher read it our class years ago. With the sanitized stories of today, it might seem a little rough, but it held this once younger boy's attention long ago. I plan to read it to my son as soon as I think he can take it.

Thanks for the question. It jogged an old memory from long ago.

What came to mind when I read the question was the episode of Rosanne where they win the lottery. That is my idea of a Cinderella story! :)

Actually, I have a little Cinderella type story of my own and it involves the day I met my husband. You see, I was a junior in a German high school and was invited to one of my classmates 18th birthday party. Since she invited all the girls from our class and wanted to “hook” them up with dates, she asked me whether I knew any specific candidates in my circle of friends. I told her I wasn’t so sure but would figure something out. So that afternoon I called my ex-boyfriend (whom I had dated approx. 3 years earlier) and asked him if he wanted to go to the party with me (but strictly as friends). I also asked him to bring some of his single friends along, since I had girlfriends that wanted to blind date. So on the day of the party I met up with my ex and we took the 30 minute drive to the small suburban home located right outside the town of Bayreuth, Germany, where my friends from school were already in party mode. My ex-boyfriend ended up bringing over 4 of his friends and we all ended up dancing and having a couple of drinks and just enjoyed the evening. But it turned out that 1) we had arrived way too early and after a couple of hours most people became bored and started leaving and 2) the guys my ex had brought weren’t too successful with any of my friends (LOL) so they wanted to leave the party early. I had, upon arrival at the party, met a sweet and attentive guy who had asked me to dance and then sat and talked to me for the remainder of the evening. When his friends came up they asked to speak to him and he then told me he would have to leave (since he had come with his friends and had no other ride home). He asked me if, before he left, I would give him my phone number so he could call me the next day. Since it was only 9 pm (I had asked my father to pick me up from the party at midnight, since I did not yet own my own car), I told him I would make a deal with him: If he agreed to convince his friends to stay until midnight, I would give him my phone number then. I’m not sure how he approached his eager-to-leave friends, but he did it and he ended up staying the extra 3 hours. Five minutes to midnight, right as my father pulled up in his car to pick me up, I quickly scribbled down my phone number to my parents home on a smashed up white piece of gum wrapper. As the clock struck midnight, I said good-bye to my newly met acquaintance and he told me he would call the next day. He did, and many times thereafter. Now, almost 12 years later, he still has this little, crumpled white piece of gum wrapper with my old phone number on it, the "glass slipper" so to speak, from our little “Cinderella deal” that night. He still tells this story to people we meet and many are awe-struck by how sweet it was of him to hang on to the phone number I had given him on the night we met. It’s his little proof of his love to me, or so he says…. :)

The best Cinderella stories for me have always been the ones that show more reality than fantasy.

When I think of a "Cinderella" plot line, I think of a person that overcomes many hardships to find what they truly want in their heart. Or finally complete a long journey to where they were they want to go.

The classics of this plot line would be Oliver Twist, My Fair Lady, or even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I was just never into the fairy tales that included Prince Charming.

When I first read the header to this question... the first thing that always pops into my head when hearing the term 'Cinderella Story' is Bill Murray in Caddyshack. It always makes me giggle.