Author Interview: Waiting on a Miracle by Anika Fajardo

Disney’s Twisted Tales start with one change to a story we know and follow the consequences. In Waiting on a Miracle, author Anika Fajardo takes Mirabel, Luisa, and Isabela out of the enchanted Madrigal house and away from the magic that shaped their roles in the family. Without Casita and the family’s gifts to lean on, the three sisters have to rely on each other and on people who have never seen the Encanto.

Anika also wrote Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters, a middle-grade book, so this YA retelling is her second visit with these characters. She talked with us about why this what-if appealed to her, how the sisters change around outsiders, and what it was like to write them again for older readers.

Waiting on a Miracle: A Twisted Tale

by Anika Fajardo
Published by: Disney Press
on September 1, 2026
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What if Mirabel and her sisters had to leave the Encanto? A magical addition to the New York Times bestselling Twisted Tale series about Disney’s Encanto.
Mirabel’s worst fear is confirmed—she is responsible for the faltering powers of the Familia Madrigal. Guilt-ridden and feuding with her sisters, Mirabel decides to save the magic herself. Sure, she may be the only gift-less member of her family, but she knows she can put their crumbling pieces back together again.
Unfortunately, Mirabel’s youngest cousin, Antonio, beats her to it. He overhears Tío Bruno’s vision and does the unthinkable—leaves the Encanto to find a solution. Terrified of what could happen outside the safety of their home, Mirabel has no other choice but recruit Strong Luisa and Perfect Isabela to help find their baby cousin.
But what starts as a rescue mission turns into a magical quest with a band of brothers whose family has a deep secret connection to theirs.
And soon, Mirabel learns that missing cousins and disappearing gifts may be just the beginning of their problems….

Interview with Anika Fajardo

Encanto is a story about family pressure, hidden pain, and a house that literally cracks under the weight of what everyone is carrying. What made you choose this particular what-if, and how did this exploration of Mirabel and her sisters offer that the film did not have room to explore?

I tend to write about family, place, and identity, and this twist on Encanto gave me space to play with all of those things. Removing the three Madrigal sisters from their enchanted home required them to interact and rely with one another and figure out how to move forward and problem-solve without the magic of Casita or the gifts of the other family members. I think all of us—whether we’re part of a magical family or not—are trying to figure out our place and how we can shine while still be true to ourselves. The what-if scenario in Waiting on a Miracle really boiled down the pressures of the family from the film.

The Twisted Tale format gives you one divergence point and then asks you to follow the logic wherever it leads. What surprised you most about where this particular what-if took the Madrigal family once you started writing?

I loved exploring how the three sisters, Mirabel, Luisa, and Isabela, change when they encounter outsiders not from the Encanto or from their magical family. We all have our roles in our social circles, whether that’s our family or friend group or workplace, and when we’re removed from those circles, we often behave differently. I’m always fascinated by how family members interact with each other and the Madrigal family is a great study for that! I played around how each of the sisters might take on some of the characteristics of the others, i.e. the strong one is seen as pretty, the pretty one has to be strong, the untalented one shows her worth.

You wrote the official Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters before this, which means you have spent time inside this world. How did coming back to it for a Twisted Tale change how you saw the characters, and was there anything you understood about them the second time that you missed the first?

It was so much fun to return to the voices of the three sisters. The biggest change for me as a writer was that Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters is a book for middle-grade readers (grades 4-8), while Waiting on a Miracle is a YA book. That meant that I was able to age up their voices and explore some different feelings and actions/reactions that are more aligned with older teens. Between the older storytelling and the change in setting, I tried to play with the sisters’ biases about one another because as we get older we get better at having more nuanced opinions. If you’ve ever gone back and read your old diary entries from when you were younger, you know the feeling of both recognizing yourself and also observing a stranger. I had that same sense as I worked with these characters again; there’s a fondness for your younger self and also the perspective to see how you’ve changed.