Books with title Barbie: Thumbelina

Step into the magical world of Child's Play fairy tales...Traditional tales are a well-established part of all cultures. Retold from the originals, these lively stories will captivate readers with their delightful illustrations and fun lift-up flaps which really add to the action. The 'flip-up' flaps encourage prediction and discussion, and well-known stories will give young readers confidence.

The fanciful watercolor illustrations are full of decorative flowers, and the lanky Thumbelina has a contemporary look. The brightly colored, double-page depictions can be easily seen by listeners in storyhours. In the scene in which the fish nibble at the lily-pad stem to set Thumbelina free, the action is shown from an underwater viewpoint and readers see only her dangling legs–a nice touch. Close-up views show the tiny girl in comparison to the toads, swallow, beetle, and mole, giving children a sense of scale and setting.

“Farewell, farewell,” said the swallow, with a heavy heart as he left the warm countries to fly back into Denmark. There he had a nest over the window of a house in which dwelt the writer of fairy tales. The swallow sang, “Tweet, tweet,” and from his song came the whole story. (from Thumbelina)Hans Christian Andersen's literary classic tale with digitally remastered illustrations by the golden age artists[Featuring Anne Anderson, Arthur Rackham, Eleanor Vere Boyle, H. J. Ford, Harry Clarke, Mabel Lucie Attwell, Margaret W. Tarrant, Milo Winter and more.]Hans Christian Andersen will take you back to your childhood.

"Thumbelina" (Danish: Tommelise) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Traveling Companion" in the second installment of Fairy Tales Told for Children. "Thumbelina" is about a tiny girl and her adventures with appearance- and marriage-minded toads, moles, and cockchafers. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size. "Thumbelina" is chiefly Andersen's invention, though he did take inspiration from tales of miniature people such as "Tom Thumb". "Thumbelina" was published as one of a series of seven fairy tales in 1835 which were not well received by the Danish critics who disliked their informal style and their lack of morals. One critic, however, applauded "Thumbelina". The earliest English translation of "Thumbelina" is dated 1846. The tale has been adapted to various media including song and animated film. Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805 to Hans Andersen, a shoemaker, and Anne Marie Andersdatter. An only and a spoiled child, Andersen shared a love of literature with his father who read him The Arabian Nights and the fables of Jean de la Fontaine. Together, they constructed panoramas, pop-up pictures, and toy theatres, and took long jaunts into the countryside. Andersen's father died in 1816, and from then on, Andersen was left to his own devices. In order to escape his poor, illiterate mother, he promoted his artistic inclinations and courted the cultured middle class of Odense, singing and reciting in their drawing-rooms. On 4 September 1819, the fourteen-year-old Andersen left Odense for Copenhagen with the few savings he had acquired from his performances, a letter of reference to the ballerina Madame Schall, and youthful dreams and intentions of becoming a poet or an actor. After three years of rejections and disappointments, he finally found a patron in Jonas Collin, the director of the Royal Theatre, who, believing in the boy's potential, secured funds from the king to send Andersen to a grammar school in Slagelse, a provincial town in west Zealand, with the expectation that the boy would continue his education at Copenhagen University at the appropriate time. At Slagelse, Andersen fell under the tutelage of Simon Meisling, a short, stout, balding thirty-five-year-old classicist and translator of Virgil's Aeneid. Andersen was not the quickest student in the class and was given generous doses of Meisling's contempt. "You're a stupid boy who will never make it," Meisling told him. Meisling is believed to be the model for the learned mole in "Thumbelina". Fairy tale and folklorists Iona and Peter Opie have proposed the tale as a "distant tribute" to Andersen's confidante, Henriette Wulff, the small, frail, hunchbacked daughter of the Danish translator of Shakespeare who loved Andersen as Thumbelina loves the swallow; however, no written evidence exists to support the theory.

Tiny Thumbelina comes to life through a flower, but is misplaced when she is kidnapped by an ugly toad. Meeting one misfortune after another, she still experiences grace and help from unexpected sources. At last Thumbelina is rescued and borne away to a beautiful land of sunshine and flowers. There she meets the Flower King and lives happily ever after. About H.C. Andersen Illustrated Fairy Tales===============================Within the fairy tale treasury that has come into the world's possession, Hans Christian Andersen's tales are among some of the most outstanding. His spellbinding stories present deep moral lessons that span both cultural and generational differences. A thread of optimism weaves its way through Andersen's stories, giving hope and inspiration to all readers. It is in this spirit that the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale Classics are published. We have selected 30 of the most popular tales and handpicked the best illustrators for each of them, taking great care to match the style of the illustrator with the specific story. Each tale talks to the heart through both words and pictures uncovering the very essence of life's values.