Puss in Boots a personalised book with your child as the hero

Once upon a time there was a miller who had three sons. When he grew old and gave away all he had, the eldest son got the mill, the second son got the donkey, and the youngest son got nothing but the cat.

"Well," sighed the youngest son, sitting down on the doorstep, "my brothers can earn their living with a mill and a donkey. But what am I to do with a cat?"

The cat, who had been listening to every word, sat down beside him and twitched his whiskers.

"Don't worry, master," he said. "Just give me a pair of boots, so I can walk through the brambles, and a good strong sack. You'll soon see that you haven't done so badly after all."

The miller's son was so astonished to hear a cat talk that he did exactly as he was asked. He spent his last coins on a fine pair of boots and a sturdy sack. The cat pulled on the boots, stamped his feet, admired himself in a puddle, slung the sack over his shoulder and set off to make their fortune. And from that day on, everybody called him Puss in Boots.

Puss went into the woods, put some lettuce leaves in the bottom of the sack, and lay down very still beside it. Before long a plump young rabbit hopped up and poked its nose inside, and Puss pulled the string. Day after day he caught rabbits and partridges in his sack. But he did not eat a single one, for he had a plan that only he knew about.

He took the first rabbit to the palace, marched straight up to the king, swept off his hat with a low bow and said, "Your Majesty, I have brought you a gift from my master, the Marquis of Carabas."

"The Marquis of who?" said the king. Nobody had ever heard of him.

"Of Carabas, Your Majesty," said Puss, as if everybody knew. "He sends you his warmest greetings."

The king was very fond of rabbit. "Tell your master I thank him," he said.

The next day Puss brought two partridges, and the day after that, two more. Week after week he brought gifts, always "from the Marquis of Carabas", until the king could hardly wait to meet this generous Marquis.

One morning Puss heard that the king and his daughter, the princess, would be driving along the river that very day. He ran home to his master.

"Quick, master," he said. "Go and have a swim in the river, just where I tell you, and leave the rest to me."

The miller's son did not understand, but he did as Puss said. He waded into the river for a swim, and just as he did, the king's carriage came rolling down the road. Puss ran out in front of it, waving his hat.

"Help! Help!" he cried. "The Marquis of Carabas has been robbed of his clothes while he was swimming!" In fact, Puss had hidden the young man's old patched clothes under a big stone.

The king recognised the cat at once. He sent his servants running back to the palace for a fine new set of clothes, the best he had. When the miller's son had dressed, he looked so handsome that the princess smiled at him, and the king invited him to ride in the royal carriage.

Meanwhile, Puss raced ahead down the road. He came to a field where people were cutting hay.

"Good people," said Puss, "the king is coming this way. When he asks you whose fields these are, please tell him they belong to the Marquis of Carabas. It will make everybody happy, I promise."

The harvesters thought this was a very odd request from a cat in boots, but they liked him, and they agreed. So when the king's carriage came by and the king asked, "Whose fine fields are these?", they all called out, "They belong to the Marquis of Carabas!"

Puss ran on and on, and in every field he asked the same thing, and everywhere the king heard the same answer. The king was more and more impressed.

At last Puss reached a grand castle. He had learned that it belonged to an ogre, a boastful ogre who owned all the land for miles around and was not kind to the people who worked it. Puss knocked at the gate, and the ogre let him in.

"I have heard," said Puss, bowing low, "that you have a marvellous gift. They say you can turn yourself into any creature you like. Even a lion, or an elephant."

"So I can," said the ogre proudly, and to prove it, he turned himself into a lion, roaring so loudly that the windows rattled. Puss jumped up on to a shelf in fright.

When the ogre had turned back into himself, Puss climbed down and said, "Most impressive. But anybody can be big. I don't suppose you could turn into something really small? A tiny mouse, for example? No, I expect that would be far too difficult."

"Too difficult?" roared the ogre. "Watch this!" And he could not resist showing off. In an instant he turned into a tiny grey mouse and scampered across the floor.

Puss did not pounce. Instead he chased the little mouse right across the hall, out through the door, across the courtyard and out of the castle gate. Then he closed the gate firmly behind him. The mouse-ogre scampered off into the fields, and he never came back.

Just then, the king's carriage came rumbling over the drawbridge. Puss ran out to meet it and swept off his hat.

"Welcome, Your Majesty," he said, "to the castle of the Marquis of Carabas!"

The king was delighted. There stood a fine castle, with fine fields all around it, and a well-dressed young Marquis stepping out of the carriage with the princess on his arm. The miller's son could hardly believe his eyes, but he welcomed everyone warmly to his new home. The castle cooks had prepared a feast, and they all sat down to it together.

The miller's son and the princess became the best of friends, and in time they were married. The people who worked the fields were treated kindly at last. And Puss in Boots became a great lord, who wore the finest boots in the kingdom and never had to catch another mouse again, except just for fun.