"The most wonderful fairy tale is life itself" Hans Christian Andersen
A young girl and her mother board a coach which is heading to Copenhagen. A older man joins them on their journey and he introduces himself as the writer Hans Christian Andersen.
Elsa is seven and she has lots of questions. Over the course of their journey Hans tells the story of his childhood, describing his father who was a cobbler, and his happy memories of the wonderful stories and plays his father shared in the evenings along with the sadness of losing his father after the war.
Elsa asks:
"Did Hans have any nice things in his life?"
At this point the story takes a wonderful turn. Hans tells Elsa about his early years. Young Hans sets out for Copenhagen aged only thirteen. He has plans to perform on the stage. For a while this dream does come true and some important people are especially kind to young Hans. The theatre is a joy but Hans discovers his true passion is writing stories, poems, fairy tales and plays.
As Hans begins to talk to Elsa about his fairy tales Maja Kastelic changes her palette of colours from memory (sepia) to full colour. Hans explains the way some of his fairy tales link to his own life and emotions such as Thumbelina, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling, and Clumsy Hans. Then he talks about other fairy tales such as The Emperor's new Clothes and The Snow Queen.
Elsa really enjoys listening to Hans and hearing about his stories. When he talks about magic she asks him to use his magic.
"The journey is taking far too long. I don't want to keep sitting in the coach. ... Can you magic the coach into flying? Like the flying trunk in your fairy tale?"
Hans tells Elsa and her mother to close their eyes, and think of a magic word. Say it in your mind not out loud. Now turn the page and see the magic!
This resource is in German but you can see nearly all of the illustrations from this book.
Dates of significance
1805 HCA is born 2nd April
1835 First fairy tale appears
1855 HCA writes a memoir of his childhood
1875 HCA dies aged 70
IBBY celebrate the life of Hans Christian Andersen through International Children's Book Day which is held each year around the world on 2nd April. IBBY also present the Hans Christian Andersen award every two years. This award is known as the "Nobel Prize for Children's Literature."
Statue of HCA in Central Park New York
I am preparing a talk for IBBY Australia - a virtual presentation, the first of a series - where we will talk about some recent picture books from around the world which have been translated into English. My copy of Hans Christian Andersen - The Journey of his Life has arrived just in time. This book was originally published in Switzerland with the title Hans Christian Andersen: Die Reise seines Lebens.
My favourite HCA fairy tale, The Wild Swans, is not directly mentioned in the story but there are swans flying across the title page and in the final scene they are wearing crowns just as they do in the fairy tale.
The illustrations in this book are by Maja Kastelic from Slovenia. Here are two other recent titles she has illustrated:
I have mentioned the Austrian author Heinz Janisch in a previous post. You can see more of his books here.
Hans Christian Andersen The Journey of his Life would be an excellent addition to a school library and a perfect simple biography to loan to teachers and students when they borrow any of the myriad of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales from your library.
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