Rapunzel a personalised book with your child as the hero

Once upon a time, deep in a forest, there stood a tall stone tower. It had no stairs and no door, only one small window right at the very top. And in the single round room at the top of that tower lived a girl called Rapunzel.

Rapunzel had lived there for as long as she could remember. A witch had taken her there when she was a baby, and she had grown up with nothing but the four round walls and the one small window. Her hair had never once been cut. It was golden as sunshine, and it grew longer every year, until it trailed across the floor and round the room and back again.

Everything Rapunzel knew about the world had come through that window. She knew the seasons from the colour of the leaves. She knew the birds by their songs. And she knew there was a road at the edge of the forest that nobody ever walked down.

Every day the witch came to visit. She stood at the foot of the tower and called:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Then Rapunzel wound her long golden braid round the hook on the windowsill and let it fall all the way down the tower wall, and the witch climbed up it, hand over hand.

"The world outside is not safe," the witch told her, every single day. "It's full of danger and wicked people. You're much better off here with me."

Rapunzel believed her, because she had nothing else to believe.

But every year, on the same summer night, something wonderful happened. Far away across the forest, from a kingdom Rapunzel had never seen, hundreds of glowing lanterns rose into the dark sky and floated up among the stars. Rapunzel watched them every year, with her chin in her hands. And on her twelfth birthday, watching the lanterns rise, she made up her mind.

"I'm ready," she said to herself. "I want to see them for myself."

A few days later, a traveller came along the forest path. He had lost his way, and when he saw the tower, he stopped at the foot of it and walked all the way round. Then he looked up at the window and called, quite reasonably:

"Excuse me! Where's the door?"

Rapunzel was so surprised that she nearly fell out of the window. Nobody but the witch had ever come to the tower before.

"There isn't one," she called down.

"Then how do you get out?"

"I don't," said Rapunzel.

The traveller scratched his head. "Well," he said, "that seems a great pity."

Rapunzel thought about it for a long moment. Then she wound her golden braid round the hook and, for the very first time, let it down for somebody who was not the witch. The traveller climbed up, puffing, and clambered in through the window.

He was not wicked at all. He was kind and funny, and he told her about the world outside: about rivers and markets and towns, and about the lantern festival, which was held in the kingdom every summer.

"Will you help me get there?" asked Rapunzel.

"Of course," said the traveller.

So the two of them knelt on the floorboards and drew a plan in chalk: down the wall, across the meadow, along the road, and on to the lanterns.

The very next morning, as soon as the witch had climbed down and gone, Rapunzel tied her golden braid to the hook on the windowsill. She took a deep breath, swung her legs over the edge and climbed down it, hand over hand, all the way down the tower wall, while the traveller went first to show her where to put her feet.

At the bottom she stood still for a moment. Then she took her very first steps on real grass. It was cool and soft and tickly, and she laughed out loud.

The road to the kingdom was full of things that had to be explained. Carts. Dogs. Puddles, which Rapunzel jumped in. Ducks, which she followed. Apple trees, which she climbed. And a great many strangers who all said "Good morning!" and smiled at her, and not one of them was wicked.

"The world isn't dangerous at all," said Rapunzel, amazed.

"Some of it is," said the traveller, "but most of it is just people saying good morning."

They reached the kingdom on the night of the festival. The streets were full of music and dancing, and everybody held a paper lantern. The traveller bought one for Rapunzel, and when the bells rang out, she lit it and let it go. A thousand lanterns went up all around her, golden and glowing, and drifted higher and higher into the sky. Rapunzel stood in the middle of them all and thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Then, through the crowd, she saw a face she knew. The witch had come looking for her.

"Rapunzel!" she snapped, pushing her way through the dancers. "Come back to the tower this instant! It isn't safe out here!"

Rapunzel looked at the lanterns, and the music, and the kind, smiling faces all around her. And for the first time in her life she did not do as she was told.

"No," she said. "The tower was never as safe as you said. It was only lonely. I'm not coming back."

The witch opened her mouth and shut it again. All around her, people had turned to look, and there was nothing she could do. She turned and stalked off into the night, back to her empty tower, and Rapunzel never saw her again.

The next morning Rapunzel braided up her long golden hair, wound it round and round her head and pinned it out of the way. Then she turned her back on the tower for good and walked into the kingdom, with her friend beside her, to see what else the world had to show her.