The Twelve Dancing Princesses a personalised book with your child as the hero

Once upon a time there was a king who had twelve daughters, each one prettier than the last. They slept together in one long room, their twelve beds side by side, and every night, when they had gone to bed, the king shut the door and locked it himself.

But every morning, when he unlocked the door again, he found twelve pairs of dancing shoes lined up along the floor, and every single pair was danced right through to holes.

"How can this be?" cried the king, holding up a shoe with a hole in the toe. "The door was locked all night!"

The princesses only looked at one another, and the youngest, sitting on the last bed in the row, put her hand over her mouth to hide a smile. For she knew the secret, and so did all her sisters, and they had promised never to tell.

At last the king sent for a kind old soldier who had come back from the wars with nothing but a long grey cloak. An old woman at the edge of the wood had given him that cloak. "Whoever wears it cannot be seen," she had told him. "And when the princesses offer you something to drink, do not drink a drop."

"Keep watch by my daughters' door tonight," said the king, pointing down the corridor, "and tell me in the morning where they go."

The youngest princess peeped round the door frame at the old soldier and wondered what he would see.

That evening the eldest princess brought him a cup of warm milk with honey. "To help you sleep," she said sweetly. The soldier thanked her, and as soon as she turned away he tipped the milk into a flowerpot, leaned back in his chair and began to snore. The only one who saw him do it was the youngest, sitting up in her bed with wide eyes.

"He is asleep," said the eldest. "Quickly!"

The twelve princesses jumped up, opened their cupboards and put on their finest ball gowns and their softest dancing slippers. Then the eldest went to her bed and knocked three times on the bedpost. With a creak and a rumble, the whole bed sank down into the floor, and where it had been there was an open trapdoor with stone stairs going down into the dark.

One by one, carrying candles, the princesses went down. The youngest went last. The old soldier threw his grey cloak round his shoulders, and nobody could see him at all, and he crept down the stairs behind her.

Halfway down, he trod on the hem of her gown.

"Oh!" cried the youngest, turning round. "Somebody stepped on my dress!"

"Don't be silly," laughed her sisters from further down. "You caught it on a nail."

At the bottom of the stairs they came into an avenue of trees, and every leaf on every tree was made of silver and shone in the candlelight. The soldier broke off a little twig to take back with him, and it snapped with a loud crack.

The youngest stopped. "Did you hear that? Something is not right tonight."

"It is only our princes cheering because we are coming," said the eldest.

Next they came to a wood where all the leaves were made of gold, and then to a wood where all the leaves were diamonds that sparkled like frost. In each wood the soldier broke off a twig, and each time there was a crack, and each time the youngest spun round with her candle held high. But she saw nothing.

Then they came to a dark lake. Twelve little boats with lanterns were waiting there, and in each boat sat a prince with his oars. Each princess stepped into a boat, and the soldier sat down very quietly in the boat of the youngest.

"I don't understand it," puffed her prince as he rowed. "Our boat is so heavy tonight. I have to pull with all my strength."

"Perhaps it is the warm weather," said the youngest, but she looked hard at the empty seat in the middle.

On the far side of the lake stood a glittering castle, and from it came the sound of drums and trumpets. The princes were under a spell: every night they had to dance in that castle under the ground, and they could not come up into the daylight until somebody brought their secret up with them.

So they danced. The youngest princess twirled until her gown flew out round her, and her prince bowed low to her at the start of every dance. They danced until three o'clock in the morning, when all twelve pairs of shoes were danced through to holes and they had to stop.

The princes rowed them back across the lake. This time the soldier sat in the first boat, hurried up the stairs ahead of everyone, and by the time the tired princesses climbed into their room, he was snoring in his chair again. The youngest held up her slipper and peeped through the hole in it, and she smiled a sleepy smile.

In the morning the king called them all to his throne. "Well?" he asked the soldier. "Where do my daughters dance at night?"

The old soldier laid a cushion before him, and on it lay a silver twig, a gold twig and a diamond twig.

But before he could say a word, the youngest princess stepped forward.

"I will tell you, Father," she said. "Under the eldest's bed there are stairs, and woods of silver and gold and diamonds, and a lake, and twelve princes who must dance every night because of a spell. And I think somebody followed us."

The soldier laughed and bowed. "It was me, Your Majesty. And she noticed every step."

As soon as the secret was told in the daylight, the spell broke. Up the stairs came the twelve princes and all their musicians, blinking in the sunshine, free at last.

That very evening the king threw open the palace ballroom. Everybody had brand-new dancing shoes, the old soldier was given the best seat in the hall, and the king laughed and danced until his crown slipped. And from that day on the princesses danced in the palace whenever they liked, with every door wide open, and nobody ever had to keep a secret again.