Snow-White and Rose-Red a personalized book with your child as the hero

At the edge of a quiet wood stood a small cottage, and in front of it grew two rosebushes. One bore white roses and the other bore red. The widow who lived there had two daughters, who were named after the roses: Snow-White and Rose-Red. They were as good and kind as any two children could be, and they loved each other so much that when they went out together they held hands. If Snow-White said, "We will never leave each other," Rose-Red answered, "Not as long as we live," and their mother added, "Whatever one has, she shall share with the other."

They often wandered through the forest, gathering berries, and no animal ever harmed them. The hare ate cabbage leaves from their hands, the deer grazed beside them, and the birds sat on the branches and sang whatever songs they knew. If night caught them out among the trees, they lay down together on the moss and slept until morning, and they were not afraid. Their mother knew it and never worried.

Every morning the girls tended the two rosebushes, and in summer Rose-Red kept the house tidy while Snow-White helped her mother with the spinning and the cooking. In the evening, when they read aloud by the fire, a little lamb lay beside them and a white dove perched on the beam above.

One winter evening, when snow lay deep and the wind was sharp, there was a knock at the cottage door. "Rose-Red," said the mother, "go and open it. Perhaps a traveller needs shelter." Rose-Red slid back the bolt, expecting a poor man. Instead a great brown bear put his broad head through the door.

Rose-Red cried out and jumped back, the lamb bleated and the dove fluttered, and Snow-White hid behind her mother's chair. But the bear spoke in a deep, slow voice. "Do not be afraid. I will not hurt you. I am half frozen and only want to warm myself a little."

"Poor bear," said the mother. "Come in and lie down by the fire. Just be careful that you do not singe your fur." Then she called to her daughters. "Come out, children. The bear is gentle and means no harm." They came out slowly, and the lamb and the dove came too, though they all kept a safe distance at first.

"Children," said the bear, "would you knock a little of the snow from my coat?" They fetched the broom and swept him clean. He stretched out on the hearth, growling happily, and before long they were no longer afraid. They played with him gently, tugged his fur and rolled a hazel stick for him to fetch, and when he rumbled with laughter they laughed with him. Each night he slept by the fire, and each morning he went off into the snow.

When spring came and the earth turned green, the bear said to Snow-White, "Now I must go away, and I shall not come back for the whole summer." "Where are you going, dear bear?" she asked. "To the forest, to guard my treasure from the wicked dwarfs. In winter, when the ground is frozen, they stay below, but now that the sun has thawed the earth they come up to steal." Snow-White was sorry to see him go. As he passed through the door, his fur caught on the latch and tore, and she thought she glimpsed something gleaming like gold beneath it, but the bear hurried away and was gone among the trees.

Some time later the mother sent the girls into the wood to gather sticks. They came to a great tree that had been felled, and by the trunk something was hopping up and down in the grass. As they came nearer they saw a dwarf with a wrinkled face and a beard a yard long. The tip of the beard was stuck fast in a split in the log, and he leapt about like a dog on a rope, not knowing what to do.

He glared at them with fiery red eyes. "Why are you standing there? Can't you come and help me?" "What happened, little man?" asked Rose-Red. "Stupid, nosy goose!" he snapped. "I wanted to split the log for my kitchen. A wedge of wood slipped, the log closed, and my beautiful beard is trapped. Now you stand there laughing at me!"

The girls tugged with all their might, but they could not pull the beard free. "I will run and fetch someone," said Rose-Red. "Fetch someone? You are mad!" the dwarf cried. "Two of you are already too many." "Do not be impatient," said Snow-White. "I have an idea." She took a small pair of scissors from her pocket and snipped off the end of the beard.

The moment he was free, the dwarf seized a sack of gold that lay hidden among the roots. "Clumsy creatures!" he grumbled. "To cut off a piece of my fine beard! What a nuisance you are!" He swung the sack over his shoulder and stomped away without so much as a glance at the girls, and not one word of thanks.

A while after that, the sisters went to catch fish for supper. Near the stream they saw something like a large grasshopper hopping toward the water. It was the dwarf again. "Where are you going?" asked Rose-Red. "You are not going to jump in?" "I am not such a fool," he screamed. "Can't you see that cursed fish is pulling me in?" His beard had tangled in his fishing line, and a big fish tugged at the other end. The girls held on to him and tried to untangle it, but the beard and line were hopelessly knotted. Once more the scissors came out and a small piece of beard was cut away.

"Fools!" the dwarf shrieked. "Do you have to disfigure my face? It was not enough to clip it before, now you have cut the best part." He grabbed a bag of pearls from the rushes and disappeared behind a stone, still grumbling.

Soon afterwards, the mother sent the girls to town for thread, needles and ribbon. Their road led across a heath where huge boulders lay scattered about. Above them a great bird was circling slowly, and then it dropped and swooped down toward a rock. They heard a piercing cry, and saw that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance the dwarf and was trying to carry him off.

The kind-hearted girls caught hold of him and fought the bird until it let go. As soon as the dwarf recovered from his fright, he cried in his squeaky voice, "Could you not have been more careful? You have torn my thin coat to rags, clumsy things!" Then he took a sack of precious stones and slipped into his cave under the rocks. The girls were used to his ingratitude, so they went on to town and did their shopping.

On the way home they crossed the heath again, and surprised the dwarf, who had tipped out his sack of jewels on a clean patch of ground. The evening sun shone on the stones, and they glittered in a hundred colours, so beautiful that the girls stopped to stare. "What are you gawking at?" the dwarf shouted, his face red with anger.

He would have gone on scolding, but a low growl rumbled through the trees and a brown bear walked slowly out of the forest. The dwarf sprang up in alarm, but could not reach his hole in time. The bear only stood still and looked kindly at him, and then at the jewels. "Oh, very well," the dwarf muttered reluctantly. "Don't look at me like that. I suppose they were never really mine. You may have your treasure back."

Grumbling under his breath, he pushed the sack of jewels across the ground and set it down at the bear's feet. The moment he let go of it, a soft shimmer ran through the air. The dwarf did not wait to see what it meant. He scurried to his hole, quite unhurt, complaining about the bad luck of the day, and was gone.

The girls had stepped back, but the bear called to them gently. "Snow-White! Rose-Red! Do not be afraid." They knew his voice and stayed. Warm golden light wrapped around him, the bearskin slipped from his shoulders and lay folded on the grass like a soft brown cloak, and a friendly young man stood before them, dressed all in gold. "I am a king's son," he said. "That dwarf had stolen my treasure and bewitched me, so that I had to roam the forest as a bear until the treasure was given back. The spell broke the moment it was returned, and now I am free. Thank you for your kindness."

The prince took the treasure home, and the sisters and their mother lived peacefully with him as friends. They carried the two rosebushes to their window, and every summer they bloomed with white and red roses. One warm evening, with the garden full of flowers, they all sat down together at a table beneath the bushes and shared a meal, laughing about the winter night when a bear had knocked at the door.