This story is part of Reading Champion, a series carefully linked to book bands to encourage independent reading skills, developed with Dr Sue Bodman and Glen Franklin of UCL Institute of Education (IOE)

In this story a little fir tree is surrounded by much bigger trees in a forest and it longs to be as big as them. Will it grow bigger and what will happen to it if it does?

Reading Champion offers independent reading books for children to practise and reinforce their developing reading skills.

Fantastic stories are accompanied by engaging artwork and a reading activity. Each book has been carefully graded so that it can be matched to a child's reading ability, encouraging reading for pleasure. This retelling of the original fairy tale by Hans Chritstian Anderson is suitable for children aged 5-7, or those reading at book band Orange.

Amelia Marshall is an avid reader and writer of children's books. She has worked in primary education and publishing for over 10 years. As well as specialising in fairy tale twists and retellings she loves to write playful rhymes. As a parent of a toddler son, she saw an opportunity to create a unique rhyming picture book set combining photographic and illustrative elements and came up with four books in Digger and Friends (Digger's Busy Day, Tractor's FarmYard Fun, Big Truck's Road Adventure & Emergency! Emergency!).