Caught in the Enigmas of the Enchanted Forest

By Ne’zz Amar, Amiza Sulaiman and Liyana RIzzle

“Little Miss Grumpy Shaylee”
Shaylee is a girl who gets angry at almost everything. She is known as “Little Miss Grumpy Shaylee” by everyone in the village and doesn’t seem to care about whose feelings she hurts. In an enchanted forest, she bumps into a dwarf who grants her a wish but this comes with a price. Her whole life then turned topsy-turvy! Find out what Shaylee has to go through in order for her wish to come true.




“The Evil Sorcerer in the Forest”
A young girl named Piper gets lost in the same enchanted forest. However, in this forest, she goes on a quest to look for her mother who has been missing for quite some time. Here, Piper has to fight for her life against numerous dangerous mythical creatures including an evil sorcerer! Will she be able to survive and reunite with her mother once more?

Every child will go through a transition phase in life as they grow older. Hence, this change requires them to handle multiple emotions at once. The characters in these two stories externalizes their internal conflicts, whereas the enchanted forest acts as a metaphor of the outside world that is challenging and unfamiliar for children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Mar 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781543762686

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by Ne’zz Amar.

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Contents

Acknowledgement

Story 1   Little Miss Grumpy Shaylee

Story 2   The Evil Sorcerer in the Forest

Acknowledgement

F irst and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to God for giving me the strength and blessing to complete this book. All praises to the Almighty Allah, Alhamdulillah.

I am deeply grateful for my parents’ continuous support throughout this first writing journey of mine. Mom and dad, your love and care are beyond compare. The foundations of these two stories are derived from the valuable life lessons that I have learned from both of you.

I would also like to express my appreciation to my supervisor, Leonie Rutherford, from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. Under your supervision, I was able to write my short stories based on Bruno Bettelheim’s and Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory. Thank you, Leonie, for guiding me throughout my thesis for my Master’s Degree.

To all my family members and close friends in Malaysia and Australia, thank you for always encouraging me to make my dreams come true. All of you have genuinely believed in me. I honestly appreciate it.

And to my two illustrators, Mija and Liyana, I feel so blessed to have met you both through social media. It has been an honour and pleasure working with a talented pair like you two. Thanks for your patience and commitment in producing such stunning illustrations. I admire your work!

My immense gratitude also goes to Partridge Publishing for the assistance that their team has provided during the whole process of publication. Thank you for making this possible!

Finally, to my beautiful seven-year-old niece, Nur Iman Abdul Rahman, thank you for being my source of inspiration while writing these two short stories. This first book of mine is dedicated to you, my little angel.

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Little Miss

Grumpy Shaylee

Anger is like a strong wind. It calms down after a while, but lots of branches are already broken

- Rumi

A young girl named Shaylee lived in a village with her mother and two younger sisters, Riley and Ashley. Shaylee was blessed with a pretty face, but sadly, her beauty did not match her unpleasant and rude character. The infamous Shaylee was known as the Little Miss Grumpy Shaylee by her family and the villagers who were familiar with her bad temper and rudeness.

The nickname, no doubt, suited her well as even trivial matters would provoke her to become a raging monster. For instance, on one busy day in the village market, a little boy who was looking for his mother unintentionally stepped on Shaylee’s foot. Terrified, he then repeatedly apologised for being careless as he did not watch where he was going. Since the place was too crowded, he did not see her there. This enraged Little Miss Grumpy Shaylee tremendously as she was wearing her favourite pink boots! ‘YOU DIDN’T SEE ME? ARE YOU BLIND? You have made my