Fawn in the wood

About the book

A childless queen receives the promise of a daughter through the help of fairies, but forgets to honor the strange crab who first guided her to them. The offended fairy warns that daylight will endanger the child before her fifteenth birthday. Princess Desired therefore grows up in a windowless palace, knowing the world through other means. When exchanged portraits awaken love between her and Prince Warrior, a carefully enclosed journey seems to offer a way around the restriction. Jealousy within her own escort threatens that plan, and the woods become a place of separation, disguise, and uncertain recognition. This brief fairy tale gives familiar motifs a distinctive arrangement: protective confinement, impatient love, a white fawn, and the loyalty of a servant who refuses to abandon her mistress.

• Enchantment and identity
• Loyalty and jealousy
• Protection and freedom

Why read it

The daylight prohibition and transformation turn a simple journey into a compact fairy-tale puzzle about recognition.

Anonymous English text in McLoughlin Brothers' Yellow Dwarf Series