FROM THE PUBLISHER

This beautifully illustrated biography commemorates the bicentennial of Hans Christian Andersen's birth. Written by one of Denmark's best-known children's authors, Hjordis Varmer, the book chronicles the fairy-tale like story of Andersen's life, describing how the eccentric Andersen came from a poor family, was ridiculed by other children, and struggled for many years before finally finding world-wide fame writing fairy tales such as The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, and The Nightingale.

Award-winning illustrator Lilian Brogger's highly original illustrations bring out the true spirit of the famous storyteller and incorporate many of Andersen's own paper cuttings and drawings, making this children's book one to be cherished.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Varmer, an award-winning Danish children's book writer, collaborates with Brigger on this account of Andersen's anything-but-fairy-tale life. Exquisitely sensitive, by turns terrified and arrogant, Hans Christian jolts from triumph to triumph, tortured by failed love, social humiliation and ill health. Unlike Jane Yolen's recent A Perfect Wizard, Varmer covers Andersen's story chronologically from cradle to grave, and is less interested in the question of his fairy tales as revelations of the author's psyche. Varmer records Andersen's life as she might write of a favorite nephew, with an attractive blend of honesty and affection ("When he was a child, Hans Christian never dreamed that people might not be interested in listening to him read aloud"). Brigger draws scores of whimsical spot illustrations, covering the margins of each page with odd characters, figurative images and scribbled backgrounds that sometimes suggest the dark corners of Andersen's nightmares. While some children will be dismayed by the unrelenting misery of Hans Christian's life (even the day on which his hometown fetes him as an honorary citizen is marred by a severe toothache), others may be heartened by the story of an extraordinary figure who never gave up the idea that he would succeed one day. Ages 10-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Carole J. McCollough

This is an attractive, cheerful biography particularly suitable for reports by middle grade students. The table of contents shows postage stamp-sized illustrations that foreshadow the events of each chapter. Each page is decorated with border, half-page, or full-size mixed media line drawings, scratchboard, and paper cutouts. The "Contents" section features lists of the events of Anderson's life that make it easy for the reader to extract specific information. The book's major flaw is likely a result of translation difficulties—it reads like a chronicle of biographical data strung together. Anderson barely comes alive in spite of the book's attractive format and reader friendliness. Awareness of the dire circumstances of his life experiences, his sensitive and fragile nature, and the unexpected latter day recognition for his stories for children is revealed as though viewing a performance with the curtains drawn. 2005 (orig. 2001), Groundwood Books, Ages 10 up.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Most of this book describes Andersen's childhood and belated schooling, showing his poverty and the grief he experienced over the death of his beloved father, as well as several horrifying events such as being forced by a teacher to witness the beheading of three young people. Although he was an unattractive outsider, often ill, and made fun of by his schoolmates, Andersen was raised listening to stories and participating in the superstitious rituals his mother believed in. In spite of his weaknesses, he had absolute confidence that he would eventually be famous. The biography is divided into 11 chapters, set up as if they were stories, introduced in the style children may recognize from its use in Winnie-the-Pooh ("In which we hear about-"). Enough dialogue is included to provide a natural feel to the narrative. The writing flows smoothly, with many details provided to help students picture the places and events. Brigger's haunting, mixed-media illustrations add to the somber and at times surreal feeling of the text. Done in a childlike style, ghosts, demons, and fears are revealed through the dark tones, and Andersen is portrayed as long-nosed and faintly ridiculous. Andersen's bicentennial is a fine occasion for an author study, and older students will appreciate that Varmer and Brigger handle the writer's difficult life without romanticizing it. Jane Yolen's more poetic and upbeat The Perfect Wizard (Dutton, 2005) also helps slightly younger students to see the connections between Andersen's life and his stories.-Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Among the most engaging of the spate of Andersen bios published for his 200th birthday, this handsomely designed Danish import presents the writer as a compulsively outgoing, if hypersensitive, fame seeker who "saw a tale in everything he experienced," and "lived in the world of his imagination, where there was always plenty of food and everything was radiant and abundant." Highlighting significant figures-particularly family members, of which he had an unusually colorful allotment-and incidents in his earlier years, Varmer follows him from cradle to grave, tracing influences on his tales, relating telling anecdotes and describing how his ingenuous self-absorption charmed patrons and friends. In all, it makes a lighthearted tale-further brightened by Brogger's award-winning, kaleidoscopic renditions of Andersen, the paper cuts he often produced as he told stories and fancifully rendered scenes from his life. (bibliography) (Biography. 10-14)