Forgotten Fairy Tales of Brave and Brilliant Girls

Rosie Dickins (Author) Rosie Dickins grew up in England and Hong Kong. An avid reader, she always loved dreaming up her own stories. After studying literature at Oxford University, art in Paris and plenty of travelling, she settled in London, where she works for Usborne Publishing. She has written over a hundred children's books, from award-winning information books to fiction.Andy Prentice (Author) Ever since he read the Spy's Guidebook when he was eight, Andy has wanted to write books for Usborne. He's very happy that he got to fulfill his dream. As well as writing books and stories for Usborne, Andy has published several fantasy novels about demons and dark magic. He likes playing board games and making up imaginary worlds.Rob Lloyd Jones (Author) Rob studied Egyptology at university, but never thought he'd do much with it. Since joining Usborne in 2005, he's written loads of books about Ancient Egypt, and on topics ranging from space to the story of Islam. He is also the author of several award-winning historical adventure novels, and a hopeless cook.Susanna Davidson (Author) Susanna writes fiction and non-fiction for Usborne. Her favourite things to write about are small monsters and talking animals. She used to live in London but now lives in a cottage on the edge of some woods. She is only sorry there are no bears or witches in them.

• Chapters in this book include:- The Daring Princess (based on 'The Iron Stove' retold by the Brothers Grimm)- The Sleeping Prince (based on an old Spanish story 'The King Sleeping in his Bed')- Snow White and Rose Red (based on 'The Ungrateful Dwarf' by Caroline Stahl and its retelling by the Brothers Grimm)- Clever Molly (based on an old Scottish tale collected by Joseph Jacobs and Flora Annie Steele)- Kate Crankernuts (a Scottish fairy tale collected by Andrew and Nora Lang in the Orkney Islands)- The Nettle Princess (based on a story first written down by Karl Mullenhoff, later collected by the Brothers Grimm)- The Wise Princess (based on a very old English story that inspired William Shakespeare's 'King Lear')- Fearless Fiona and the Spellbound Knight (based on the story 'Tam Lin' which was originally sung as a Scottish Ballad)

This book, telling us stories almost lost to history, is so exciting and so very different to the versions of the fairy tales available when I was young.