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.

Adèle Geras (Author) 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. Anne Fine (Author) Anne Fine is one of our most distinguished writers for children. She has written over fifty highly acclaimed books and has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Childrens Fiction Prize and both the Whitbread Childrens Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal twice over. Anne was appointed the Childrens Laureate from 2001-3, and her work has been translated into over forty languages. In 2003 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Anne lives in County Durham. Henrietta Branford (Author) 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, includingDimanche Diller(Smarties Prize and the Prix Tam-Tam) andFire, 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. Jacqueline Wilson (Author) JACQUELINE WILSON is an extremely well-known and hugely popular author who served as Children's Laureate from 2005-7. She has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the British Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award (forThe Illustrated Mum), the Smarties Prize and the Children's Book Award (forDouble Act, for which she was also highly commended for the Carnegie Medal). In 2002 Jacqueline was given an OBE for services to literacy in schools and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. She was the author most borrowed from British libraries in the last decade.

'A brilliant writer of wit and subtlety' THE TIMES 'She should be prescribed for all cases of reading reluctance' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Has a rare gift for writing lightly and amusingly about emotional issues' BOOKSELLER Malorie Blackman (Author) MALORIE BLACKMANhas written over fifty books and is acknowledged as one of todays most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. She has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Red House Childrens Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. Malorie has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2005 she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her contribution to childrens books, and in 2008 she received an OBE for her services to childrens literature. She has been described byThe Timesas a national treasure. Malorie Blackman is the Childrens Laureate 201315. Philip Pullman (Author) Philip Pullman is one of the most highly acclaimed children's authors of the decade. He has been on the shortlist of just about every major children's book award in the last few years, and has won the Smarties Prize (Gold Award, 9-11 age category) for THE FIREWORK-MAKER'S DAUGHTER and the prestigious Carnegie Medal for NORTHERN LIGHTS. He was the first children's author ever to win the Whitbread Prize for his novel THE AMBER SPYGLASS. A film of NORTHERN LIGHTS (THE GOLDEN COMPASS) was made in 2008 by New Line Cinema. He lives in Oxford. Tony Mitton (Author) 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. Alan Garner (Author) 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. Berlie Doherty (Author) 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. Gillian Cross (Author) 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 includeWolf(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. Kit Wright (Author) 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 includeThe BearLooked Over the Mountain(1977), which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award, andShort Afternoons(1989), which won the Hawthornden Prize and was joint winner of the Heinemann Award. His poetry is collected inHoping It Might Be So: Poems 1974-2000(2000). Michael Morpurgo (Author) Michael Morpurgo is one of today's most popular and critically acclaimed children's writers, author of KENSUKE'S KINGDOM and THE WRECK OF THE ZANZIBAR amongst many other titles. He has won a multitude of prizes including the Children's Book Award, the Smarties Prize and the Writer's Guild Award. His most famous work, WAR HORSE, was adapted into a multi-Oscar-nominated film by Steven Spielberg, and a genre-defying play at the National Theatre - becoming one of the most widely-acclaimed and well-known productions in recent theatrical history. Susan Gates (Author) 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! Linda Newbery (Author) Linda Newbery is an award-winning author of over twenty books for children and young adults for children and teenagers.