A princess who doesn’t want to marry, a dragon who is an embarrassment to his superiors, a family in which Gran is the most open-minded, a magical forest next to the best hairdresser’s in Madrid, a squirrel who makes a full time job out of gossip... Do you think this is a children’s adventure story just like any other? Well, take a step back and think again because Amaranta’s world is unique and once you’ve entered it, you’ll never be the same again!
Amaranta is eight (and a half!) years old – old enough to know that monsters don’t exist. But the thing that jumps out and lands on her face every night when she sleeps... well she knows that THAT’S REAL! Amaranta needs all the help she can get to discover who or what the mysterious intruder is. With the support of her friends and a good dose of courage, she embarks on an adventure in which she soon discovers that what terrified her so much isn’t really so fierce when seen up close. Now a unique and extraordinary creature needs her help to undo the terrible curse he’s under and only their teamwork can break the spell. Can they do it?
Genre: JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Dragons, Unicorns & MythicalPrologue
At five in the afternoon light poured in through the horseshoe-shaped window of an old attic room in Madrid's San Andrés Street. It was that time of day when children go home from school. Joyful shouts, a parade of backpacks dancing across the worn cobblestones, and packets of crisps opening with that cheerful pop that soap bubbles would make if they were not so shy and dared to sing.
In the room, on a small bed with a shapeless headboard, slept a drawing book with a hot chocolate stain on one of its bottom corners from the last rainy day of autumn.
At 5:15 one of the sunbeams poking their noses through the window did one of those kinds of things that only happen when no one is looking. It opened its eyes very wide, looked one way and then the other, and then stealthily crept across the wall and deeper into the room. It worked its way up to the ceiling and then paused there, right above the book. Quiet, very quiet. A blink or two. A breath. The sunbeam swelled, filling itself with all the air it could, puffing out its cheeks and holding its breath. Then it whooshed downwards in a trail of sparks. Specks of dust twinkled like fireflies as the book surrendered, slowly opening its cover to show the first page.
Amaranta doesn’t know this, but that was the strange and magical way we learned all about her extraordinary tale.
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French
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Already translated.
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Italian
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Already translated.
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
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Spanish
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Unavailable for translation.
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