True Heroes
A Treasury of Modern-day Fairy Tales Written by Best-selling Authors
“This beautiful volume provides a hopeful antidote that combines fantastical and inspirational pictures with prose designed to engage children’s imaginations and remind them that they are full of power, strength, and hope.”—Richard Paul Evans, #1 New York Times bestselling author
This one-of-a-kind treasury brings together the talents of nearly two dozen bestselling middle-grade authors, including Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, Ally Condie, and Jennifer A. Nielsen, who have created original short stories - modern-day fairy tales - based on the lives and dreams of children they have met who all have two things in common: they have very big hopes and dreams, and they are all cancer patients. Each short story is prefaced by a brief introductory bio of the child and is accompanied by photographs of the child, fully costumed and digitally inserted into a background - a baker, a dancer, a superhero, a dragon fighter, a sports star, a princess and more - that makes them the hero of their own modern-day fairy tale story written by one of their favorite authors.
Proceeds from this collection of 21 stories benefit the Anything Can Be project, which fights pediatric cancer.
Praise for True Heroes
“A unique literary treasury...Truly exceptional, unfailingly entertaining, inspired and inspiring, “True Heroes” is unreservedly recommended for children ages 8 to 11 and will prove to be an enduringly popular addition to family, elementary school, and community library collections.”
“[Shannon] Hale recasts Lilly, born with Ewing’s sarcoma, as a warrior princess facing down a goblin army, while Liesl Shurtliff weaves an imaginative Alice in Wonderland–style story, complete with size-shifting, for a girl named Jordan, who died months after being diagnosed with bone cancer. The photography, heroic adventures, and profiles of the children who inspired them add up to a project that’s inspiring and moving on multiple levels. Ages 8–11. ”