“How could anyone sneezes in front of a magic book! Oh no! The letters have been blown off!” growled Mama Troll.

“Just as we were so close to finding the spell that would make us look nice…”, sighed Papa Troll.

“How have the letters fallen?” asked Trollita, “Can you still read the book? Does it make sense?”

“Hmm, let me see…Even worse! It's useless, it's turned into a cookbook…Ugh! What a disaster!” grunted Papa Troll, throwing the book out of the window.

It was only natural for them to be angry. The troll family had lived a great adventure to find that magic book. It was their only hope of stopping scaring everyone with their horrible looks. A book of magic is very delicate and Papa Troll was such a brute …

The book was ruined so they all had to accept the way they looked and carry on with their lives. As they didn't have any other books, little Trollita decided to keep it and make some of the recipes.

“Ugh! We don't like this food. From now on you will eat whatever you make from that book by yourself.” shouted Mama and Papa Troll.

Some time later, a brave knight in shining armour passed by. He saw Trollita with her parents and shouted, “Fear not, princess, for I will help you escape from these horrible trolls!”

However, it was the knight who could not escape from a good whack. He was still on the ground when Trollita saw a reflection in his armour. Given that all the mirrors in her house had been broken for a long time, she felt a little curious.
She moved closer to see her own reflection and couldn't believe her eyes: she looked like a normal girl! She looked again and again, it had to be her. How had she turned into this?

The confusion did not last long and they soon discovered that none of them were trolls. They ate so little fruit and vegetables that they had been unable to see properly, and their cuts never healed fully, nor did anything… That's why they looked so bad! And, of course, as soon as Trollita started eating the recipes from the healthy cookbook, she looked lovely!

“We would have preferred to use the magic to stop looking like trolls but eating your recipes won't be that difficult,” said Trollita’s parents.

Needless to say, it did not prove difficult and they soon got used to the food and actually enjoyed it too.

And when they had learnt all the recipes from the book, they went in search of a child that hated healthy food and gave it to them to stop them looking like a troll too.

Translated by Niamh Williams, Manchester Metropolitan University