Snow White a personalised book with your child as the hero

Once upon a time, in the middle of winter, a queen sat sewing at a window with a frame of black ebony. She pricked her finger, and three drops of red fell on the snow outside, and she wished, "Oh, if only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as ebony." Soon afterwards she had a little daughter with skin as white as snow, cheeks as red as roses and hair as black as ebony, and she was called Snow White.

When Snow White was still very small, the king married again. The new queen was beautiful, but she was proud and jealous, and she had a magic mirror. Every morning she stood in front of it and said:

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

And the mirror always answered, "You, my Queen, are the fairest of them all."

But Snow White grew up kind and lovely, and one morning the mirror answered:

"My Queen, you are fair, it is true, but Snow White is fairer far than you."

The queen did not care for that answer at all. She called her huntsman and said, "Take the girl deep into the forest, and make sure she never comes back."

So the huntsman led Snow White into the forest. But when they were far from the palace, he looked at her kind face and could not bring himself to do as he had been told.

"Run, child," he said quietly. "Run into the woods and don't look back. The queen means you harm, and you must never return to the palace."

Snow White ran between the dark trees, and when night came down, every branch seemed to reach for her and every shadow seemed to move. Just when she thought she could not take another step, she saw a small light shining between the trees.

It came from a tiny cottage. The door was on the latch, so Snow White went in. There was a little table with seven little plates, seven little cups and seven little spoons, and against the wall stood seven little beds, side by side. Nobody was home.

Snow White was so hungry that she ate a little bread from each plate and drank a sip from each cup. Then she lay down across three of the little beds and fell fast asleep.

The cottage belonged to seven small miners who worked all day in the mountain, digging for gold and silver. When they came home that evening and lit their seven candles, they saw at once that somebody had been there.

"Who's been eating from my plate?" said the first.

"Who's been drinking from my cup?" said the second. And so it went on, until the seventh looked at the beds and cried, "Look! There's a girl asleep here!"

The seven miners crowded round with their candles. "What a lovely child," they whispered, and they let her sleep.

In the morning Snow White woke to seven kind faces, and she told them everything.

"Stay with us," said the miners. "We'll look after you, and you'll be safe here."

So Snow White stayed. The days passed happily. While the miners worked in the mountain, she swept and baked and sang, and in the evenings they all told stories round the table. And every morning, as they set off with their picks and lanterns, the miners left her one rule: "Open the door to nobody. The queen may find out where you are."

Back at the palace, the queen stood in front of her mirror. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

And the mirror answered, "Over the hills, where the seven miners dwell, Snow White is living, and living well."

The queen shook with rage. She dressed herself as an old pedlar woman, with a hood pulled low over her face, and filled a basket with fruit. On top she put an apple with a sleeping spell on it. One side of it was white and the other side was shining red, and anybody who took a bite of the red side would fall into an enchanted sleep.

She went over the hills to the cottage and knocked at the door, while the seven miners were away at the mine.

"Fine fruit for sale!" she called.

Snow White looked out of the window. "I'm sorry," she said, "I'm not allowed to open the door to anybody."

"Then take this as a present, my dear," said the old woman. "Look, I'll eat half myself." She cut the apple and ate the white half, and held the red half up to the window.

The apple looked so delicious that Snow White took it. She took one bite, and the piece of apple stuck in her throat, and she sank down on the floor in a deep, enchanted sleep. The queen hurried away laughing.

When the seven miners came home that evening, they found Snow White lying on the floor. They called her name, but she did not wake. Her cheeks were still rosy, and she looked only asleep.

The miners would not give up. They built her a bed of woven branches in the clearing, covered it with flowers, and took turns to keep watch beside it, night after night. And all the while they thought hard about what had happened.

One evening the youngest miner noticed a red apple core lying in the grass by the cottage window, with one bite missing.

"The apple!" he cried. "It's the apple that's doing it!"

So the seven of them very gently lifted Snow White up and patted her on the back, carefully, the way you do when somebody has something stuck. And the piece of enchanted apple popped out of her throat.

Snow White opened her eyes and sat up in the morning light. "What happened?" she asked.

"You're with us," said the miners, laughing and crying at the same time, "and you're safe."

Back at the palace, the queen stood in front of her mirror, quite sure of the answer this time. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

And at last the mirror told her the plain truth. "Snow White is awake, and safe, and loved by all, and a jealous heart is the least fair of all."

The queen was so furious that she stormed out of the palace and away down the road, and she was never seen in that kingdom again. Snow White went home to her father, but she never forgot her seven friends, and every week she went over the hills to the little cottage to tell stories round the table, just as before.