A magic story, says award-winning author Berlie Doherty, is "a story that casts a spell on the reader, so that they can't get it out of their minds or their dreams." In its own way, each of the ten stories she has chosen to include in this book casts such a spell. Here are tales from all round the world - from Australia to the Shetland Isles full of strange and wonderful happenings: where people fly, a hare grants a wish, a child is found in a seashell, fruits become precious jewels, seals cast off their skins to appear as beautiful human creatures...Some are happy stories, others haunting and sad, but all have the power to enchant - as too do the magical pictures by Kate Greenaway Medallist Juan Wijngaard. Look, read and you will be enthralled.