The Dinosaur Princess: A Terrifically Twisted, Two-Minute Fairy Tale
by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Fred Blunt
Once upon a time there was a seriously silly story about a knight in armor who rode away on a quest to slay a just plain mean dragon. But then again, he had no horse. Did we say “rode?” He strode, of course. That’s right — he strode across the land, with half a sandwich in his hand? A sword! That’s what we meant to say!
In The Forgetful Knight by Michelle Robinson and illustrated by Fred Blunt, a tale is told of an intrepid knight, only our narrator can’t quite remember the details. Did he carry a sandwich, that knight, or a sword? Was he meant to fight a cat or a dragon? A hilarious and suspenseful adventure ensues, building through laugh-out-loud rhymes until at last the narrator remembers his own role at the center of all the marvelous madness.
In the spirit of The Forgetful Knight, Michelle and Fred wrote an exclusive new story for Brightly that flips the fairy tale tropes we’ve all come to know upside down. Grab your young reader and get ready to giggle all the way through the terrifically twisted happy ever after.
The Dinosaur Princess
There once was a book with a wacky title.
The book belonged to a dinosaur princess named Lily-Dave.
Everybody loved her — or him — such was his or her broad appeal.
But a mean old dragon stole the book!
Hang on: not a dragon (too close to a dinosaur).
A troll? Not international enough.
And everyone’s sick of pirates.
How about a wizard?
Yeah. A wizard stole Lily-Dave’s book.
The wizard was a really BAD baddy, but not so bad you’d get nightmares.
He probably just needed a friend — we’ll come back to that for a neat ending.
Meanwhile, Lily-Dave wanted her book back.
Being a courageous, smart, kind, sometimes faltering but ultimately brave protagonist, she got right on it.
She stomped her dinosaur feet.
She hitched up her princess dress.
She did a third thing, because book stuff happens in threes.
Then, in a visually thrilling, action-packed scene that would leave any illustrator half demented, Lily-Dave had her book back.
But the wizard started to cry.
Lily-Dave felt bad. So…
She read the book to him.
Lily-Dave and the wizard became lifelong friends, had lots more adventures, a spinoff TV series, and a range of action figures.
– The End –
Michelle Robinson has always wanted to be an author like her hero Roald Dahl, but all they had in common was the same birthday and a love of chocolate. Now at last, Michelle is a real author too. She lives in Frome, Somerset with her husband, son, and daughter. Visit her at michellerobinson.co.uk.
Fred Blunt never wanted to be an astronaut or drive a train when he grew up. Right from the beginning he knew he wanted to draw silly pictures of a living … and some decades later he’s living the dream! Interrupted only by tea breaks and toddlers, Fred works from his home studio in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK where he lives with his wife and two young children.