Waking beauty - Julie Parrish

What happens when Sleeping Beauty wakes up - and it's 2009? Then discovers that her Prince is a boy in trouble with the police? Can there still be a fairy tale ending? Waking Beauty is a funny and moving fairytale played out against a backdrop of gritty council estates, posh schools and evil witches.Summer, London 1909: Princess Anna pricks her finger, under a curse cast by a wicked witch when she was born. Initially doomed to die, the curse is altered by a good fairy, so that Anna and her family will, instead, sleep for one hundred years, until the princess is woken up by a prince.Summer London 2009: Sixteen-year-old Leo Prince is a boy in care and in trouble with the police. Sentenced to community service, he has to help clear the overgrown land surrounding an old Manor House. Inside, he stumbles across the sleeping Princess Anna. In answer to a dare he kisses her, breaking the curse and waking her.An awkward friendship blossoms between the unlikely pair, but the descendents of the old witch are in London and determined to finish what she started. As a result, Anna finds herself being drawn away from Leo and towards Michael, who is good looking, sporty, clever, charming and sophisticated.A modern day fairy in disguise attempts to guide Anna towards the right choice. But what could possibly make her give up the school heart throb? Leo also suspects that all is not as it should be with Michael and his family and that Anna is in danger. But can he overcome his past to save her?

Julie Parrish has worked as a national TV reporter and presenter, a radio newsreader and as the editor of the Children's Page at a regional newspaper. She is the author of The Magical Tuba, a children's story performed live at the Royal Festival Hall. She lives in North London with two cats, two children and a husband.