Can I Meet the Frog Prince? a personalized book with your child as the hero

Once upon a time there lived a king who had several daughters, and the youngest of them was called Lily. Of all her toys, Lily loved her golden ball the best. Near the castle there was a great dark forest, and at the edge of the forest, under an old lime tree, stood an ancient well. On warm days Lily liked to sit beside the well and play, throwing her golden ball up into the air and catching it again.

One afternoon she threw the ball higher than ever before. It glittered in the sunshine, slipped through her fingers, bounced once on the stones and fell, splash, into the well. Lily leaned over the edge and looked down, but the well was so deep that she could not see the bottom.

She began to cry, and she cried louder and louder, until a voice said, "Whatever is the matter, princess?"

Lily looked round. Poking its head out of the water was a frog, a fat green frog with golden eyes.

"Oh, it's you, old water-splasher," said Lily, wiping her eyes. "I'm crying because my golden ball has fallen into the well."

"Don't cry," said the frog. "I can fetch it for you. But what will you give me if I do?"

"Anything you like," said Lily. "My dresses, my pearls, even the golden crown I wear."

"I don't want dresses or pearls or crowns," said the frog. "But if you'll be my friend, and let me sit beside you at the table, and eat from your little golden plate, and drink from your little cup, and sleep somewhere safe in your room, then I'll dive down and bring your golden ball back up."

"Yes, yes, I promise, all of it!" said Lily, not really thinking. "Just bring me my ball!"

The frog dived down into the deep water. In a moment he came back up with the golden ball in his mouth and tossed it on to the grass. Lily was so pleased that she picked it up and ran straight home with it, without even saying thank you.

"Wait for me!" croaked the frog. "I can't run as fast as you!" But Lily did not wait.

That evening, Lily was sitting at supper with the king and all the court when something came climbing up the marble steps of the castle, splish, splash, splish, splash. Then there was a knock at the door, and a voice called:

"Youngest princess, open the door! Don't you remember what you promised me, down by the well in the cool of the day?"

Lily ran to the door and opened it a crack. There sat the frog. She slammed the door shut and came back to the table, looking pale.

"Who was it, my dear?" asked the king. "Not a giant come to carry you off?"

"No, Father," said Lily. "Only a horrid wet frog." And she told him what had happened at the well.

The king listened, and then he said gently, "When you make a promise, you must keep it, especially to someone who helped you when you needed it. Go and let him in."

So Lily opened the door, and the frog hopped in after her, all the way to her chair.

"Lift me up beside you," he said.

Lily did not want to, but the king looked at her, so she lifted him up on to the table. She pushed her little golden plate towards him, and they shared their supper together. And as they ate, Lily began to see the frog a little differently. He had very good manners. He told funny stories about life in the well. And when she laughed at one of them, he looked so pleased that she found herself smiling at him.

When supper was over, the frog yawned a big froggy yawn. "I'm tired," he said. "May I have a safe place to sleep, as you promised?"

Lily hesitated. Then she remembered how kindly he had fetched her ball, and how he had waited at the cold door in the dark. She carried him up to her room and made him a soft bed on a silk cushion beside her pillow.

"Goodnight, frog," she said. And then, because he was her friend now, and a promise is a promise, she bent down and gave him a kind goodnight kiss on the top of his little green head.

At that very moment there was a shimmer of light. The cushion glowed, and the frog was gone. In his place stood a young prince with kind golden eyes.

"Thank you," he said. "A wicked witch put a spell on me long ago and turned me into a frog. Only a princess who kept her promise and was truly kind to me could break it."

The next morning, as the sun came up, a carriage drawn by eight white horses rolled up to the castle gate. Behind it stood the prince's faithful servant, Heinrich. When his master had been turned into a frog, Heinrich had been so sad that he had three iron bands put around his heart, to stop it from breaking.

As the carriage drove away with the prince and Lily inside to visit the prince's kingdom, there was a loud crack.

"Heinrich, the carriage is breaking!" called the prince.

"No, master, it's not the carriage," called Heinrich. "It's a band from round my heart, which was full of sorrow while you were a frog in the well." And twice more there was a crack, as the other two bands burst open with joy.

They came home again that evening, and there was a celebration in the castle garden, with music and dancing under the lime trees, and the king, Lily and the prince ate supper together at a long table on the lawn. And Lily kept her golden ball well away from the well after that, though she and the prince often went to sit beside it, to remember how they first met.