Sleeping Beauty a personalised book with your child as the hero

Once upon a time a young prince was riding through a far country when he came to the edge of a great forest. Above the treetops, far away, he could see the tips of some towers, all wrapped in green. At the edge of the forest, an old woman sat spinning outside a little hut.

"Good day," said the prince. "Whose towers are those?"

"Sit down," said the old woman, "and I'll tell you."

So the prince sat down, and this is the tale she told.

"A hundred years ago, a king and queen lived in that palace. For a long time they wished for a child, and at last a little daughter was born. The king was so happy that he held a great feast for her christening. He invited all his friends, and he invited the fairies of the kingdom too, so that they would bless the baby. There were thirteen fairies, but the king had only twelve golden plates, so one fairy was left off the list.

"The twelve fairies came, and each of them gave the baby a gift. One gave her kindness, one gave her beauty, one gave her a sweet voice, one gave her a merry laugh, and so on, until eleven had spoken. Then the doors flew open, and in swept the thirteenth fairy, the one who had not been invited. She was hurt and she was angry, and she did not even look at anyone.

"'Here is my gift,' she cried. 'When the princess is fifteen, she will prick her finger on a spindle, and she will fall asleep, and so will everyone inside these walls, for a hundred years!' And she turned and swept out again.

"The twelfth fairy had not given her gift yet. She could not undo the spell, but she said softly, 'When the hundred years are over, somebody kind will come.'

"The king ordered every spindle in the kingdom to be burned. But on the princess's fifteenth birthday, she found a little winding stair in an old tower, and at the top an old woman was spinning. The princess had never seen a spindle before. She reached out to touch it, pricked her finger, and fell fast asleep. And at that very moment everyone in the palace fell asleep too: the king and queen on their thrones, the cooks in the kitchen, the guards at the gate, the horses in the stable and the cats by the fire. Even the fire stopped flickering. And around the palace a hedge of briar roses began to grow, higher and thicker every year, until now only the tops of the towers can be seen.

"Many have tried to get through," said the old woman, "but the thorns are too thick."

"I'll try," said the prince.

"They all say that," said the old woman, but she smiled a little as he went.

The prince rode through the forest until he came to the briar wall. The thorns were grown so thick and so tall that not even a bird could have got through. But all over the briars there were roses, pink and red and white, nodding in the sunshine, and the prince did not want to hack them down.

"You've been growing here for a hundred years," he said to the roses. "I'd rather not hurt you."

He got down from his horse and looked carefully, and he found a place where the stems grew a little apart. He lifted one branch aside, gently, and then another, and as he went, the briars seemed to bend back for him of their own accord, and not a single rose was harmed. Then he was through, and standing in front of the palace gate.

Inside, everything was asleep. The horses dozed in their traces in the courtyard. The doves slept on the rooftops with their heads under their wings. The fountain had stopped in the middle of a splash. In the kitchen the cook had her hand raised to tweak the kitchen boy's ear, and both of them were snoring. In the great hall the king and queen sat on their thrones, fast asleep, and all the lords and ladies nodded round them.

Everything was so quiet that the prince could hear his own footsteps. He climbed the little winding stair in the old tower, past a spinning wheel gone grey with dust, and opened the door at the top.

There, on a canopied bed, lay the princess, fast asleep. Roses had grown in at the window and all round the bed, and she was so lovely that the prince stood and looked at her for a long time.

Then he remembered the old woman's tale, and he said out loud, "It wasn't fair, you know. The thirteenth fairy should have been invited. If I had been the king, I would have found a golden plate for her, if I'd had to make it myself, and I would have said I was sorry she was left out."

As he spoke, the door creaked behind him. There stood the old woman from the edge of the forest, but now she did not look old at all. She was the thirteenth fairy, and she had been waiting a hundred years for somebody to say those words.

"Nobody ever said sorry," she said quietly. "Not once, in all this time." And she raised her hand, and the spell was lifted.

The princess opened her eyes and smiled at the prince. And all over the palace, everybody stretched, and yawned, and rubbed their eyes, and picked up exactly where they had left off a hundred years before. The horses shook themselves. The doves took their heads out from under their wings and flew off into the fields. The fountain finished its splash. The fire in the kitchen flickered and blazed, the meat began to sizzle, and the cook tweaked the kitchen boy's ear, and he yelped.

Then the whole palace threw the longest-awaited party in the kingdom. There was music and dancing and a feast that went on for days. The prince and the princess danced together, and the thirteenth fairy sat at the top table, in the seat of honour, eating from a golden plate. And she was never left out of anything ever again.