The twelve dancing princesses ( reading) usborne young reading

Their father, the king, was a grumpy old man who didn’t believe in having fun.. That night, Prince Marcus As Prince Marcus drank the was taken to the tower and put cocoa, he bega

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The Brothers Grimm

Illustrated by Anna Luraschi

Contents

Chapter 1 Family trouble

Chapter 2 The sisters’ secret

Chapter 3 Taking the challenge

Chapter 4 Ralph and Rascal

Chapter 5 Ralph on the trail

Chapter 6 A shock for the king

Their father, the king, was a grumpy old man who didn’t

believe in having fun

All of you just sit down and

look pretty!

In fact, he believed that

princesses should be seenand fx

The thing they argued about most was dancing

Their father hated it, but

the princesses loved it

so whenever

he wasn’t looking, they danced

S44

be

Chapter 2

The sisters’ secret

The girls slept in a tall tower with their beds side by side

7

Every night, the kinglocked - One morning, when the door

couldn’t sneak out were still asleep

them, she noticed their shoes were lying in a soggy pile on the floor

When the king heard about the shoes, he was furious

“Those girls have been out dancing,” he spluttered

Bring my daughters here NOW!

“Princesses should not be out dancing all night!” he yelled at

them “You need your beauty

sleep You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”

E J

The girls weren’t ashamed in the least What’s more, they

wouldn’t tell him how they had

escaped or where they had been

1]

The next morning, it was

clear that the princesses had

been out again The §

same thing happened

He decided that the first man

to discover where his daughters

went each night could marry

one of them Posters went up across the land

J0 TP with your job? Feel like a Siena S

Solve a royal mystery

and win big prizes!!

of Bến lộ:

Ñ ¥ i

Win your own kingdom is

marry a genuine princess!

|

Interested? Drop in to the

oy 289 for further details.

W

Chapter 3

Taking the challenge

The first man to take up the king’s challenge was brave Prince Marcus

14

“By the way, there is one small catch,” the king told him “If you fail, Pll cut off

your head!”

Um OkOYy

no problem, your

That night, Prince Marcus As Prince Marcus drank the

was taken to the tower and put cocoa, he began to feel sleepy

in a room next to the princesses

iil ei Ne ei Ai re ae il < = is ¬

comfortable Wf splashing cold

16 ¬—_—_ =.>xrr 17

Next morning, the princesses’

shoes were worn out again

Prince Marcus had failed — and the king wasn’t joking about chopping off his head

Ralph noticed one of the

W king’s posters and decided

One day, magician named

| Ralph and his pet dog, Rascal,

were passing the castle

20

|

When he saw Ralph, the king

looked doubtful But he was

desperate to know what the

girls were up to, so he agreed to

let Ralph tru

I'll chop off

your head if you fail, you know

@ ™ nice,” she whispered

to her sisters “I don’t want him

to die because of us Maybe we shouldn’t go out tonight ”

Her sisters ignored her

23

A few minutes later, Annabel,

the eldest sister, brought Ralph

a cup of cocoa But Ralph was

a wise magician He knew what she was up to

He pretended to drink the cocoa Then, when Annabel wasn’t looking, he poured it

into Rascal’s bowl

Rascal was delighted

25

Then, with an even bigger yawn, he pretended to fall fast asleep

27

With the last button

tied, the girls stood by their

Chapter 5

beds Annabel pulled back a

dusty, old rug in the corner | Ralph on the trail

of the room to reveala gf |

secret trap door The

: One bụ agate the aie " When the princesses were out

disappeared down some steps of sight, Ralph quickly

and into a long, dark tunnel entered their room

He clicked his Ralph tried to walk quietly, fingers and a # but it wasn’t easy At one

cloak appeared | point he stepped on Amy’s With a second dress She jumped and turned

Carefully, he

tiptoed down the

steps into the tunnel

It didn’t take long for him to

catch up with the princesses

30 | ae

Babe ty neg ll a: ated = TT 7 ”m

A few moments later Ralph stepped on a twig Now Amy was convinced that someone was following them Her sisters didn’t believe her

Ralph had never seen trees Twelve boats were #4 like them While the princesses waiting at the edge (ee carried on, he gently broke 7

off a twig from each tree of the lake and in

each boat sat a

handsome pri

Up ahead, the princesses had ©

stopped before a lake It stood in AeRacn pr

across the lake

l¿

Ralph sneaked into the boat -

carrying Amy When they S their feet were sore and

reached the other side, a Nó

band began to play

As the sun rose, they limped

home “Our nights of dancing

are still safe — unlike poor

Ralph’s head!” said Annabel,

yawning Amy looked upset

142 tế)

Chapter 6

shock for the king

The king was having breakfast

when Ralph strolled in “Good morning, your majesty,” said

Ralph brightly

39

“I suppose you’ve come to

tell me you failed too,” sighed

the king

“Ah, but I didn’t, sire,” Ralph replied Waving the twigs, he told the king what he’d seen

it up to save your head?”

One look at her face told the

king all he needed to know

“Dancing is banned!” he declared

42

The princesses sobbed and wailed when they heard their

secret had been discovered

“What will we do?” they / \

cried “Life is so dull

True to his word, the king let 3 Amy and Ralph’s wedding

Ralph marry one of his - was a joyful occasion Even daughters “I'd like Amy,” the king couldn’t stop smiling

aes , pen said, ft she'll - “T have a surprise for you,” he

The king led her to the

Hundreds of candles lit up the dance floor and in the corner a band was

q playing a ee tune

| 4ó

ballroom and Amy gasped

“As it’s a special occasion, you may all dance — but for one night only!” said the king

“Oh, how wonderful!” cried

Amy and her sisters, grabbing

> partners They were all still

dancing the following night

"T thought I said one le night

only!” said the king, but he

smiled Ralph had worked

some more of his magic

The Twelve Dancing Princesses was first written down by two brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm They lived in Germany

in the early 1800s and together they retold hundreds of fairy tales

Series Editor: Lesley Sims Designed by Russell Punter and Natacha Goransky

This edition first published in 2009 by Usborne Publishing Ltd.,

Usborne House, 83-85 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8RT, England

www.usborne.com Copyright © 2009, 2004 Usborne Publishing Ltd

All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise

without the prior permission of the publisher The name Usborne and the devices @ @ are Trade Marks of Usborne Publishing Ltd

Printed in China UE First published in America in 2005

>

48

like to have fun When their father finds out they’ve

been sneaking off at night to go dancing, he's

furious “Dancing is banned!”

he declares But will that stop them?

Usborne Young Reading is in Series One of Usborne Young Reading,

which combines good stories with easy reading text

Usborne Young Reading has been developed in consultation

with Alison Kelly, Senior Lecturer at Roehampton University

Series One is for readers who have just started reading alone

Series Two is for readers who are growing in confidence

Series Three is for readers who are ready for longer stories

Find out about all the titles available at ISBN 978-0-7460-6330-9

www.usborne.com

£4.99:

JF AMJJASOND/I4% 02016/9

Printed in Dongguan, Guangdong, China

Made with paper from a sustainable source, 780746°063309">