Alexandra Wallner's Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End

"Winter was a happy time in Strawberryland. The Strawberry Kids loved to watch big fluffy snowflakes fall on the berry patches. They often played in the snow, making angel shapes, sledding, and skating."


"Elderberry continued, 'I saw an animal running for his life into the woods. He was carrying something…I think the animal OI saw had just stolen the Snow Crystal.'
'But who was it?' asked Huckleberry Pie.
'It was Bendict Badger.' "



"'I don't want you to leave,' said Benedict sadly. 'I will be all alone again. And there won't be any more jam.'
'We'll come back to see you…and we'll have more jam-sandwich picnics.'"



Stories Love Pictures

Robert D. San Souci's Nicholas Pipe

"Nicholas chose for an unknown reason to make his home on land, living in a driftwood hut. To his neighbors he seemed unremarkable…to Margaret he was a marvel beyond all others."



"...The boats pitched and rolled as Margaret tied her craft behind and climbed into her father's boat. Each took an oar and rowed desperately. From the gathering dark and churning waves came screeches and the murmur of voices speaking a strange language. 'We are doomed!' groaned Marius. 'Those are the sea folk.'"


"Margaret's heart flooded with joy. 'Why, Nicholas Pipe,' she said gently, 'you sound very much like a man in love.'
'Yes,' he said miserably."





"Our children will be children of land and sea, and Oh! What marvels they will be."

Marianna Mayer's Beauty and the Beast

"Once there was a wealthy merchant who lived with his three daughters and three sons…"



"The beast was dressed in clothes fit for a prince, but his face was that of a wild animal. The terrified merchant could barely look at him without shuddering. Hoping the beast would take pity on him he told his story, ending with Beauty's request for a single rose."



"Beauty thought, "This is the most wonderful room in the palace. Poor beast, with all his wealth and love of beautiful things, he is wretched and lonely. Well, I will try to help him be happy."



"As Beauty spoke, he stirred, and moved his great head. Before beauty's eyes, he began to grow stronger…his beastly appearance began to fade."

Stories Love Pictures

W.S. Gilbert's The Bab Ballads

Policeman Peter Forth I drag
From his obscure retreat:
He was a merry, genial wag,
Who loved a mad conceit.
If he was asked the time of day
By country bumpkins green,
He not unfrequently would say,
"A quarter past thirteen."





He smoked, but in a modest way
Because he thought he needed it:
he drank a pot of beer a day,
And sometimes he exceeded it.

Stories Love Pictures

Roald Dahl's The Minpins

"That wood," his mother said, "is full of the most blood-thirsty wild beasts in the world."
"You mean tigers and lions?" Little Billy said.
"Worse...Whangdoodles…" his mother said, "and Hornswogglers and Snozzwanglers and Vermicious Knids…and worst of all is the Terrible Bloodsucklling Toothplucking Stonechuckling Spittler…he blows clouds of hot smoke out of his nose…"


"Watch the birds as they fly above your heads and, who knows, you might well spy a tiny creature riding high on the back of a swallow or a raven."


"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."

Ruth Manning-Sanders' Book of Magical Animals

Elsa and the Bear...
'Don't look hither,
Don't look thither,
Look before you, not behind you,
Then no evil thing shall bind you.



Small tooth Dog...
She thought that now surely the dog would have been content and galloped off and left her; but he did no such thing. He shook her off his back, he stood up on his hind legs; with his two front feet he pulled off his dog's head and tossed it high into the air; his rough hairy coat dropped from him, and there he stood, the handsomest young prince in all the world...



Lilla Rosa...
Into furious shape after furious shape that creature changed itself, and still it struggled and screamed, 'let go quickly, or hold fast!' and still the prince held on…he clutched to the thing that fought and kicked and bit and scratched and hissed and spat until with one last great cry, it lay still in his arms...

Jane Yolen's Tam Lin

"The Queen of Fey found me and took me inside the green hill. I have lived there ever since. Believe me, in the Land of the Fey there is no old age…I am ten times sixteen, older than the oldest man alive outside the hill."

Jennet smiled. "That cannot be. Your face is young, your limbs are strong, and you are fair. What is your name?"
"I am called Tam Lin," he said.


"And then I'll be your own true love,
I'll turn a naked knight:
Then cover me with your green mantle,
And cover me out of sight."