Though she is a wingless fairy, Fia does what she can to help her friends the woodkins and proves her worthiness to be Queen when she sets out to rescue two little woodkins.

"A well-intentioned imp asks for a penny and inadvertently creates all kinds of havoc, making messes and cleaning up after himself. In this story placed in a medieval setting, the imp soon asks for a coin bag for his penny, a shovel to bury the bag, a pebble to mark it, and on and on and on!"--

These are not your mother's fairy tales... Did you ever wonder how the dwarves felt after Snow White ditched them for the prince? Do you sometimes wish Cinderella hadn't been so helpless and petite? Are you ready to hear the Giant's point of view on Jack and his beanstalk? Then this is the book for you. Thirteen award-winning fantasy and science fiction writers offer up their versions of these classic fairy tales as well as other favorites, including The Ugly Duckling, Ali Baba, Hansel and Gretel, and more. Some of the stories are funny, some are strange, and others are dark and disturbing -- but each offers something as unexpected as a wolf at the door.

Mary Oaks, a religious woman, marries a man who proves to be far less than she anticipated. After their first child, a daughter, is born, Mary retreats deeper into her religion and when her husband forces her to make love and she becomes pregnant, she decides this child must be evil. After her husband is killed in an accident, she gives birth to the baby in the house and keeps it in the basement. Five years later, he finds his way out and becomes something of a terror during his nocturnal trips. When he endangers the life of a five-year-old girl, the horror is exposed.