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Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag

Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag

Magic beans. Sow them. Plant them. Watch children grow.

'If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!' - Shel Silverstein, Poet

Each and every one of the stories in this anthology is a magic bean: a wondrous tale that will capture your imagination. Prepare to be dazzled by Rapunzel's golden tresses. Prepare to be moved by the suffering of the Little Mermaid. Prepare to laugh yourself silly as 'Mr Sultana' struggles to get the better of a little red rooster!

Lovingly crafted by the finest authors and illustrators, these 'magic beans' will delight, thrill and thoroughly entertain.

Reviews

  • An entrancing collection of classic fairtyales retold by leading storytellers such as Philip Pullman, Adele Geras, and Malorie Blackman. Elegant line drawings add to the magic

    Amanda Craig, The Times

  • A wonderfully entertaining sampler of 14 great storytellers, who include Anne Fine, Phillip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson. It's rich retellings range from Aesops Fables to the Little Mermaid

    Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times

  • With wonderfully told stories by brilliant writers including Alan Garner, Linda Newbery, Anne Fine, Gillian Cross, Berlie Doherty and Philip Pullman, parents will love it every bit as much as their kids

    Daniel Hahn, Independent

  • If you don't have a collection, then Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag is as good a place to start as any . . . Even bought as a reference guide to fantastic writers for your kids to explore, it'll be money well spent

    Mail on Sunday

  • With comfortable print and decorative embellishments by well-known illustrators, this rich kaleidoscope of stories is a book for keeps

    Mary Arrigan, The Irish Examiner

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About the Author

Adèle Geras

ADELE GERAS was born in Jerusalem and travelled widely as a child. She started writing over twenty-five years ago and has published more than 80 titles. Ithaka was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Chirldren's Book Award. She lives in Manchester with her husband and has two grown-up daughters and two grandchildren.

Adèle Geras

Anne Fine

Anne Fine has written numerous highly acclaimed and prize-winning books for children and adults. The Tulip Touch won the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award; Goggle-Eyes won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal; Flour Babies won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year; and Bill's New Frock won a Smarties Prize. Anne Fine was named Children's Laureate in 2001 and was awarded an OBE in 2003.

Anne Fine

Henrietta Branford

Henrietta Branford was born in India in 1946 but grew up in a remote part of the New Forest. Her first novel, Royal Blunder, was published in 1990. After that she wrote many different sorts of books, from picture books to teenage novels, including Dimanche Diller (Smarties Prize and the Prix Tam-Tam) and Fire, Bed and Bone (Guardian Children's Fiction Prize). After her death in 1997 a prize was established to commemorate her and her editor Wendy Boase - the Branford Boase Award for a first novel.

Henrietta Branford

Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson wrote her first novel when she was nine years old, and she has been writing ever since. She is now one of Britain’s bestselling and most beloved children’s authors. She has written over 100 books and is the creator of characters such as Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather. More than forty million copies of her books have been sold. As well as winning many awards for her books, including the Children’s Book of the Year, Jacqueline is a former Children’s Laureate, and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. Jacqueline is also a great reader, and has amassed over 20,000 books, along with her famous collection of silver rings. Find out more about Jacqueline and her books at www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk

Jacqueline Wilson

Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman has written over seventy books for children and young adults, including the Noughts & Crosses series, Thief and a science-fiction thriller, Chasing the Stars. Many of her books have also been adapted for stage and television, including a BAFTA-award-winning BBC production of Pig-Heart Boy and a Pilot Theatre stage adaptation by Sabrina Mahfouz of Noughts & Crosses. There is also a major BBC production of Noughts & Crosses, with Roc Nation (Jay-Z’s entertainment company) curating the soundtrack as executive music producer. In 2005 Malorie was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children’s books. In 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature, and between 2013 and 2015 she was the Children’s Laureate. Most recently Malorie wrote for the Doctor Who series on BBC One, and the fifth novel in her Noughts & Crosses series, Crossfire, was published by Penguin Random House Children’s in summer 2019.

Malorie Blackman

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman was born in Norwich and educated in England, Zimbabwe, Australia and Wales. He studied English at Exeter College, Oxford. His first children's book, Count Karlstein, was published in 1982. To date, he has published thirty-three books, read by children and adults alike. His most famous work is the His Dark Materials trilogy. These books have been honoured by several prizes including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Prize, and (for The Amber Spyglass) the Whitbread Book of the Year Award - the first time that prize had been given to a children's book. Pullman has received numerous other awards, including the Eleanor Farjeon Award and the Astrid Lindgren Award. He was knighted in the 2019 New Year's Honours List for Services to Literature.

Philip Pullman

Tony Mitton

Tony Mitton is an award-winning poet, whose gently mesmerising, often humorous poetry is irresistible to both children and adults alike. He is an extremely versatile author, writing story poems and shorter verse with skill and wit. Tony does lots of author events, school visits and poetry readings and always leaves his audience entranced. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.

Tony Mitton

Alan Garner

Alan Garner was born in Congleton, Cheshire, in 1934. His began writing his first novel at the age of 22 and is renowned as one of Britain's outstanding writers for young adults. He has won many prizes for his writing, and, in 2001 he was awarded the OBE for services to literature.

Alan Garner

Berlie Doherty

Berlie Doherty began writing for children in 1983, after teaching and working in radio. She has written more than 35 books for children, as well as for the theatre, radio and television. Berlie has won the Carnegie Medal twice: in 1987 for GRANNY WAS A BUFFER GIRL and in 1992 for DEAR NOBODY. She has also won the Writer's Guild Children's Fiction Award for DAUGHTER OF THE SEA. Her work is published all over the world, and many of her books have been televised.

Berlie Doherty

Gillian Cross

Gillian Cross was born in 1945. Although she is now a full-time writer, she has had a number of informal jobs, including being an assistant to a Member of Parliament. Her books include Wolf (Carnegie Medal 1990), The Great Elephant Chase (Whitbread Children's Book Award, Smarties Prize, 1992) and the titles in the 'Demon Headmaster' sequence, which was also made into a TV series.

Gillian Cross

Kit Wright

Kit Wright was born in 1944 and is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children. His books of poetry include The Bear Looked Over the Mountain (1977), which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award, and Short Afternoons (1989), which won the Hawthornden Prize and was joint winner of the Heinemann Award. His poetry is collected in Hoping It Might Be So: Poems 1974-2000 (2000).

Kit Wright

Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain's best-loved storymakers. He has written over 150 books loved by readers around the world. His best-known work, War Horse, was adapted into a multi-Oscar-nominated film by Steven Spielberg and into a widely acclaimed play by the National Theatre. In 2003 Michael became the third Children's Laureate, a position he helped to create with the poet Ted Hughes. With his wife, Clare, he set up the charity Farms for City Children, and for their pioneering work they were both awarded the MBE in 1999. In 2017 he was awarded a knighthood for services to literature and charity.

Michael Morpurgo

Susan Gates

S.P. Gates was born in Grimsby, England. Her dad is a musician and her mum was a tailor. Before she became a full-time writer she lived and worked in Malawi, Africa, then taught in schools in Coventry and County Durham in England. She has written more than 100 books for children. Many of which have won prizes, including twice overall winner of the Sheffield Children's Book Award, commended for the Carnegie Medal and Highly Commended for the Nasen Special Educational Needs Award. She's diversified a lot in children's writing (she likes a new challenge) and has written plays, poems, picture books, books for reluctant readers, novels for teenagers, comedy, thrillers, comedy/thrillers, historical novels - and even once a series of books about grammar for schools. If she hadn't been a writer, she'd like to have been a professional guitarist like her father, who is still gigging at 88 years old! www.susangateschildrenswriter.blogspot.co.uk www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Gates-Children's-Author/208668295974052 www.pinterest.com/monsterinthemud/susan-gates-childrens-books

Susan Gates

Linda Newbery

As a child Linda Newbery was a secret writer, filling exercise books with stories which she hid in her wardrobe. Now she is a published author of over forty books, mainly children's and teenage fiction. She has been shortlisted for many prestigious literary prizes and has won the Costa children's book award. Linda lives in an Oxfordshire village and enjoys yoga, gardening, walking and the cinema.

Linda Newbery

Read more

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Video

Draw Hetty Feather with Nick Sharratt

Get your pens and paper ready - it's time to learn how to draw Victorian heroine Hetty Feather with illustrator Nick Sharratt.
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Games & activities

Create your own Hetty Feather Christmas tree decorations

In Hetty Feather’s Christmas, Hetty is entranced by the beautiful Christmas tree at the Rivers’ house. Why not have a go at creating some wonderful decorations for you own tree?
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Games & activities

Dress up as Tracy Beaker

Dress up as the feisty and laugh-out-loud funny Tracy Beaker from Jacqueline Wilson’s well-loved books, using this easy DIY costume hack.

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