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Matchless: A Christmas Story

3.33 of 5 stars 3.33 · rating details · 1,647 ratings · 254 reviews

Every year, NPR asks a writer to compose an original story with a Christmas theme. In 2008, Gregory Maguire reinvented the Hans Christian Andersen classic "The Little Match Girl" for a new time and new audiences.

When it was first translated from Danish and published in England in the mid-nineteenth century, audiences likely interpreted the Little Match Girl′s dying visions...more

Hardcover, 112 pages

Published October 27th 2009 by William Morrow & Company (first published October 13th 2009)

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Nov 22, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Tina

Shelves: childrens, retelling

If revival is to music and remake is to movies, retelling is to stories.

Now I know what my two friends here in Goodreads have been ranting to me whenever I see them. They both love reading retelling of children's books. One is even planning to write retellings of known Filipino fairy tales or folklores. At first, I was not sure what this meant as I was not really a fan of fairy tales or folklores. My parents did not read children's books to me when I was a child. Our island-hometown did not have...more

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Jan 04, 2013 babyhippoface rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: holiday, grown-up-stuff

Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl is, without a single doubt, the most depressing "fairy tale". Ever. To quote Taylor Swift, "Like...EVER." (Sorry; I cant help it; I have a 15-year-old budding guitarist in my house.)

Maguire expanded the original story in this tale written for NPR's radio audience. He apparently tried to inject a little hope into the situation. And by "a little hope" I mean, "the eensiest bit possible". The little match girl still has no name. She still freezes to d...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Andrew rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

What an awful story. Though the original (The Little Match Girl) was depressing, at least it provided social commentary and had a moral to it. This... this is just bad.

Matchless focuses on the tale of Frederick. At the beginning one might think Frederick is Maguire's substitute for the little match girl in the original. No, she's still there, simply relegated to a minor roll in the story. She still dies, although this time around it's not through the cruelty of society, but simply a series of ac...more What an awful story. Though the original (The Little Match Girl) was depressing, at least it provided social commentary and had a moral to it. This... this is just bad.

Matchless focuses on the tale of Frederick. At the beginning one might think Frederick is Maguire's substitute for the little match girl in the original. No, she's still there, simply relegated to a minor roll in the story. She still dies, although this time around it's not through the cruelty of society, but simply a series of accidents (oops, she lost her slipper with her house key in it) and stupidity (she freezes to death while playing with matches rather than going home or asking someone for help). In the original, her father was a horrible man who would beat her had she come home without selling any of her matches. In Matchless, he's portrayed as a loving father and little match girl simply assumes he'll beat her if she comes home penniless. As written by Maguire, her fear is completely unfounded while in the original her fear is justified and understandable.

It's ok though, next Christmas little Frederick is lost and dead little match girl's ghost leads him home with her ghostly matches. Everyone lives happily ever after. Hooray! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Oh, except the dead little match girl, frozen to death the year before. Frederick doesn't even bother telling dead little match girl's father, who's grieving his daughter, about her ghost leading him home. Frederick is a self-absorbed, oblivious, little twit.

Side rant #1: Frederick's mother breastfeeding the little match girl's infant siblings. Frederick is old enough that he hasn't been breastfed in years (he walks, talks, makes his way ineptly around town, and even provides stolen fish for his family). No mention is made of any recently deceased babies in his family, nor any mention of his mother being a wet nurse (the story specifically goes on and on at length about her being a seamstress to the queen). Women do not spontaneously begin lactating when presented with an infant. This was a glaring mistake on Maguire's part.

Side rant #2: In the ebook edition there was no indentation of paragraphs or line spacing between paragraphs. I'm sure this was the publisher's fault, but when the ebook specifically has "text-indent" in the CSS, you'd think it would be set to some value other than 0.

One star for the illustrations, that's all this dreck deserves. Maguire's attempt to turn a sad story into something cheerful is a complete failure.(less)

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May 19, 2012 Bart Breen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Maguire Does what He Does Best

Maguire is the type of author whom people seem to either love or hate. There's not so much middle ground and this book will likely evoke reactions similar to those of his more substantial books.

Make no mistake however, this is not one of Maguire's typical books.

What Maguire does better than most authors is to take an archetype of folklore and then to weave a tapestry around it that pulls it into modern times and make it more understandable and real to readers. Readi...more Maguire Does what He Does Best

Maguire is the type of author whom people seem to either love or hate. There's not so much middle ground and this book will likely evoke reactions similar to those of his more substantial books.

Make no mistake however, this is not one of Maguire's typical books.

What Maguire does better than most authors is to take an archetype of folklore and then to weave a tapestry around it that pulls it into modern times and make it more understandable and real to readers. Reading a Maguire tale may serve better in some ways to show the tale to better advantage than the original tale where many nuances and temporal elements are lost over the years.

Many of those elements are true to form in this shorter tale but added to it as well are the line drawings of the author that reinforce the verbal themes with pictures that do more than just illustrate the scenes being depicted. Here Maguire uses his drawings to futher elicit and evoke feeling and emotion. A reader would do well to pause and linger just a moment more to see what Maguire is doing with these illustrations.

Matchless, as a Christmas Story (the original was set on New Year's Day) with the additional tale woven in pulls out some of the story in a way that probably brings the reader into it to understand better what a contemporary reader of that day, age and place would have seen and felt. The typical western reader doesn't live with infant mortality, young children forced to the street to eke out a living and certainly not a young girl freezing on the streets with the hallucinations of a slow death recounted. This is not something that would draw memories and emotions from most readers. Maguire however provides those elements with his corallary tale in a manner that puts the original into a meaningful and understandable context that many readers otherwise would not likely have.

A small and oft forgotten tale amidst other classics like the Ugly Duckling, in the works of Hans Christian Anderson, The Little Match Girl is perhaps seen as filler. It lacks the imagination and romanticism that have held those stories in our common cultural parlance. It is nevertheless a spark, when woven in the kindling of Maguire's elaboration that catches fire and brings a sense of mortality, family and the distant but all too close presence and remembrance of lost loved ones, that our culture seems to have run from and diminished. We bury ourselves in activity in an effort to drive such remembrance and awareness of suffering away from us. Not so in Maguire elaboration. The reader is brought to those reminders and remembrances that a contemporary reader would have known was there between the lines.

Maguire gets it right to move this tale just a week earlier to Christmas and we're drawn into a tale that is at once familiar but still, given additional hooks to hang the feelings, pictures and emotions that Maguire paints upon on the canvass of a reader's mind.

Many may walk away and miss what lies within this book. Less in this case is indeed more.

Maguire hits his mark and demonstrates himself a master of his craft. This is a worthy read and those who "get" Maguire and those who perhaps have not read him before are in for a treat.

5 Stars.

Bart Breen(less)

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Dec 14, 2011 Samantha rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Absolutely No One

Shelves: add-ons-spin-offs, holiday, reviewed

Where in the world do I begin?? Hmm--how about the definition of a retelling? Retelling- A new version of a story. Let me think. Was that a retelling of a story?? Not really. The basic fairy tale that was meant to be "retold" was, in fact, the same. This would be more like an add-on type thing. If you want to even call it that.

Before I read Matchless, I read Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Match Girl," so I could have a reference to go off of. I didn't really need it, considering Mr. Magu...more Where in the world do I begin?? Hmm--how about the definition of a retelling? Retelling- A new version of a story. Let me think. Was that a retelling of a story?? Not really. The basic fairy tale that was meant to be "retold" was, in fact, the same. This would be more like an add-on type thing. If you want to even call it that.

Before I read Matchless, I read Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Match Girl," so I could have a reference to go off of. I didn't really need it, considering Mr. Maguire just decided to basically plagiarize Mr. Anderson's work without changing anything except for who the girl saw when she was dying. Wow. That story was retold SO well. [enter sarcasm in that last sentence] I can't believe this guy!! He has the nerve to say: I'm gonna retell this story because the world needs to hear it. Then just copies something that someone else could have easily picked up and read for themselves without all the extra bunk about Frederik.

Frederik.....I could really care less for him. He's a poor boy...wow, so was Oliver Twist. He makes things out of random objects,....so did Quasimodo in Disney's version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. If I want a Queen's nursemaid person (seamstress, whatever), I will go pick up InkSpell and have a side of adventure added to my meal....make it a combo. Frederik's mom marries the dad of the little match girl in this story....big whoop. Hamlet's mom marries Hamlet's uncle...and May Parker marries J. Jonah Jameson Sr. in the Spider-Man series. Who really cares? Apparently, no one cares about the Little Match Girl. At first, when Frederik says they need matches because they're out, I figured: "Oh yay!! They're going to buy matches from the little match girl and everything will be okay. She will go home and have a merry christmas and won't have to die." OR "Yay!! Frederik is going to go to buy matches, see the Little Match Girl and save her from death! She will be fed a relatively proper meal, he might give her some new shoes and everything will end well..because it's a CHRISTMAS STORY!!!!" Remember, THIS IS A CHRISTMAS STORY!!!!!

Last time I checked, I don't think people get warm fuzzy feelings when they hear about little kids dying at Christmas. It's bad enough that Tiny Tim already has crutches. That's enough pain & suffering for us!! We don't need to hear about a Little match Girl who was totally innocent die because she froze!!! The world has enough problems without Mr. Maguire adding his own depressing .2 cents. I'm really gonna read this at Christmas time and then say: "That was a great story, huh kids? Fabulous story! A little girl froze to death while you get to be nice and warm in this house. Now let's cut the turkey and open presents!!" NO. NUH-UH. WON'T HAPPEN.

This "retelling" was a waste of time. Frederik was unnecessary, the Little Match Girl STILL DIED, and this was an EPIC FAIL. Better luck next time Mr. Maguire. >=( (less)

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Dec 13, 2011 Patty Valencia rated it 1 of 5 stars

I picked MATCHLESS as a quick read.

Before I read this really quick read, I read the original story. After that I read MATCHLESS. When I first started reading the story, I thought that the little match girl had been replaced by a boy named Frederik, since in the first chapter his family has an issue with matches as well. The Frederik part of the story was ok. Frederik's main problem is that he can not share of himself to others emotionally. He is making a town in his attic bedroom that means the...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Nesa Sivagnanam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like the little match girl, Frederik must help provide for the household, which consists of himself and his mother, the widow Pedersen. In order to do so, the young boy hangs out by the docks, scaring fish out of the mouths of gulls. He is essentially a scavenger, in the same way the gulls are scavengers. At the same time, Frederik is also a collector of “bits of beautiful trash:” old fishing nets, empty thread spools, acorns, a cracked dish—all the small, discarded things deemed unworthy by oth...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Marcie rated it 4 of 5 stars

My Thoughts After Reading:

I adore Maguire.

Life is precarious, like the spark of a matchstick.

The author refers to this work as "an illumination of Hans Christian Andersen's classic 'The Little Match Girl,'" but it's more of a rekindling of a fairy tale of the past that is no longer suited to modern taste. It's...sad.

The Godless people we are today can only see a grim, brutal reality, not the transcendence of the spirit and connection in the universe. So Maguire retells the tale with new elements...more

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Dec 26, 2010 Linda Lipko rated it 3 of 5 stars

After reading the fairy tale of The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, I was reminded that many fairy tales are darkly themed without happy endings. A long time ago I read Bruno Bettleheim's The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, wherein he posited that children should be exposed to fairy tales because they provide a realistic framework that life threatening problems are a part of humanity. Still, when reading the fairy tale to my seven and six year old gr...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Leeanna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Matchless, by Gregory Maguire

I was looking for a short introduction to Maguire, and "Matchless" fit the bill perfectly. It's a slim retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" story, which I'm a little ashamed to say I'd never heard before this. Maguire does take some liberties in changing the story a little bit, which he notes at the end.

"Matchless" is a bit sad, but also has some bright points. Frederik is a new character, and he is the urchin that takes the match girl's sli...more

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Jan 24, 2010 David Edmonds rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2010

I know, I know, it's a Christmas story and I'm reading it almost at the end of January. But, I did get chosen to read this from the October 09 LTER batch, and it just arrived in the mail two days ago, and I don't want to tarnish my LTER reviewing record by waiting until later this year to read and review the book. So, you'll just have to suffer on with a review of a Christmas story in late January. Or you can simply move on to the next post. Your choice. There's no pressure from me here.

I want t...more I know, I know, it's a Christmas story and I'm reading it almost at the end of January. But, I did get chosen to read this from the October 09 LTER batch, and it just arrived in the mail two days ago, and I don't want to tarnish my LTER reviewing record by waiting until later this year to read and review the book. So, you'll just have to suffer on with a review of a Christmas story in late January. Or you can simply move on to the next post. Your choice. There's no pressure from me here.

I want to like Gregory Maguire, I really do. Not so much the man, as I've never met him face to face so have no thoughts on him personally, but his writing. I mean, one of his books is the foundation for what I feel is one of the finest Broadway shows ever written, and one that I feels parallels my life on so many levels: Wicked. When I read his book Wicked for the first time, I had not seen the show yet. I had not even heard the soundtrack yet. The Wizard of Oz is one of my most cherished stories, and I was expecting something that would lead up to the beginning of Dorothy's time in Oz, and that is not what was delivered. I was fairly disappointed in the book, as it took so many elements of Oz and completely turned them on their side. Of course, that's the point, but it didn't make me happy. A friend says that I'm just too close to the original story of Oz to be able to appreciate any changes like that. Well, I listened to the soundtrack for the stage version of Wicked and really liked it, and felt a little more distance between myself and Maguire's book, but was trying to figure out how some of the songs fit in with the book so hadn't made a final decision yet. Finally, joy of joys, I experienced the stage production, and officially hated the book. While the stage production still keeps in basically the same theme of the book, it transcends the book on every level, and the story of friendship between Elphaba and Glinda and their time together and Elphaba's need to break away and become her own person spoke to my heart on so many levels that I cried through most of the production. And I'm not ashamed to say that I've cried again during each of the eight times that I've seen Wicked since.

Long story short, I know I should like Maguire's writing, because so many friends of mine do, but based on that one reading experience with Wicked, I haven't dared pick up a book of his since. Which is where the LTER program came to my rescue with Matchless. I would be "forced" into reading another book from him and would be able to make another decision, and while Matchless isn't a full blown novel, it still gave me a little bit more respect for Maguire as an author.

Matchelss is described as An Illumination of Hans Christian Andersen's Classic "The Little Match Girl", and it is. Maguire took Andersen's classic and one insignificant character (the urchin who picks up the little match girl's slipper) and creates a beautiful little story of family and forgiveness. Maguire tells us the story of that urchin, Frederik, and his mother, a seamstress to the queen. When Frederik finds the slipper in the street, he had no idea that it belonged to the poor match girl, and he takes it home to act as a boat for his toy family to be able to go and find a larger family, which it ends up doing on multiple levels for Frederik. I won't give anymore away except that the little match girl, in the end, forgives Frederik for taking her slipper and helps him find his own way back home.

It is a charming little story that can be read in no time at all, but one that also helped me decide that maybe Maguire will be worth trying to read again, as this short, quaint tale was filled with so much heart and soul.(less)

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Jan 02, 2010 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maguire dives into what is probably Hans Christian Anderson's darkest tales was he has modernized "the Little Match Girl."

Frederik and his mother live a modest, poverty-filled life. They both work hard for everything, but they get by all the same. For a hobby, Frederik has been building a small model town in their attic.

While walking in town one evening, he comes across a lost slipper. Inside the slipper is a key and an address. He and his mother go to the address and meet the family of a young...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Nicola rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, own

Reason for Reading: I have several of the author's books but haven't read any as of yet plus The Little Match Girl is one of my favourite fairy tales.

Summary: The story of a young boy who lives with his widowed mother. They may be poor, but they have just enough to get by and that is enough for them. Their lives very briefly cross paths with a little match girl who dies in the night cold one evening. Then due to that crossed path they are brought together with her distraught family.

Comments: A b...more Reason for Reading: I have several of the author's books but haven't read any as of yet plus The Little Match Girl is one of my favourite fairy tales.

Summary: The story of a young boy who lives with his widowed mother. They may be poor, but they have just enough to get by and that is enough for them. Their lives very briefly cross paths with a little match girl who dies in the night cold one evening. Then due to that crossed path they are brought together with her distraught family.

Comments: A bittersweet, little story that is really much more than a retelling of The Little Match Girl. Macguire uses Andersen's tale as a starting point to expand upon and from which to create his own tale. Chapter 2 of the book does retell Andersen's tale pretty much keeping to the original though he does make it clear that the little girl is hallucinating and it is her dead mother she sees at the end instead of her grandmother.

Set in the past, in a time of horse and buggies, there is a sentimental ambiance that floats throughout the story. One feels that things are not going to go particularly well and after the death of the little girl any small act of joy becomes poignant. Macguire shows how the small things in life can (and maybe should) mean so much. As in the original tale there is that heavy feeling in the heart but there are bright moments and humour added by Frederick's mom. The fairy tale aspect comes into play when Frederick and his mom meet up with the little match girl's widowed father and two other young daughters and there is a special magical ending on Christmas Eve. At the very ending I think the book went one page too long, for I had just finished reading the end and felt happy with a sweet ending when I turned the page and one more sentence was written that I just didn't get. Perhaps it's just me, but I couldn't make sense of it, I turned back and re-read the second last page and for me that is where the story ends. A charming little story. Not for young children but more for adults and older children who don't mind a bittersweet story.(less)

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Nov 11, 2009 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: gregory-maguire

Matchless put a new spin on Hans Christian Andersen's story The Little Match Girl. In the opening pages of this book, we meet Frederik who is a young boy living in poor conditions in a fishing village. Frederik has used his imagination to create a small escape for himself and ventures out into the night while his mother is at work to find a new piece for his collection. During this time, Frederik crosses paths with the little match girl and her story unfolds. She has no customers to sell her mat...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Katie Salter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Note: Though Matchless is several years old, as well as a holiday story, I just encountered it this week and had to share my thoughts. . .
In the past several years, National Public Radio has made it a tradition to present to their listener’s a Christmas Day Version of their popular segment, All Things Considered. This special segment usually includes a Christmas themed story written and read by a popular author. In 2008 Gregory Maguire was asked to be this special guest .
The author, who is popul...more Note: Though Matchless is several years old, as well as a holiday story, I just encountered it this week and had to share my thoughts. . .
In the past several years, National Public Radio has made it a tradition to present to their listener’s a Christmas Day Version of their popular segment, All Things Considered. This special segment usually includes a Christmas themed story written and read by a popular author. In 2008 Gregory Maguire was asked to be this special guest .
The author, who is popular for his retellings of popular fairytales including Wicked, and Mirror, Mirror (The Wizard of Oz and Snow White), readily accepted the opportunity to charm readers with yet another magically rewoven version of a classic tale. Maguire did not disappoint. What the author did do however, was surprise. Taking a risk with some rather heavy holiday subject matter, Maguire approached Hans Christen Anderson’s holiday classic The Little Match Girl (1843). In case you are not familiar with the story of The Little Match Girl, it’s pretty simple and goes something like this:
“On a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is freezing badly, but she is afraid to go home because her father will beat her for not selling any matches. She takes shelter in a nook and lights the matches to warm herself. In their glow, she sees several lovely visions including a Christmas tree and a holiday feast…she sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and … The child dies and her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. ” (From Wikipedia)
So . . . Yikes.
On its own, The Little Match Girl may have been a tad too dated - and maybe more than a tad too tragic for a modern holiday audience. But wizard that he is, Gregory Maguire found a way, weaving in a thread so golden, so luminary, it is nearly impossible to resist the new tapestry. To update the tale, Maguire has moved the story to take place over Christmas Eve, changed the character from a Grandmother to a mother, and made the father a much more gentle soul. Most significant is that Maguire has introduced to the story Fredrick, a poor boy in pursuit of a better life for himself and his mother. This story is lacking nothing, but surprisingly and perhaps even refreshingly diverges in form from Maguire’s usual works which often feature anthropomorphism and other mystical elements. Maguire chooses this Christmas story to instead focus on elements of the divine, alluding to the experience of life after death and the journey of the human soul.
Once you encounter Matchless, whether it’s performed, or you experience it in its sparse but beautifully illustrated book format, it’s just kind of becomes hard to shake. Maguire has provided for audiences several things that were lost in the original story – transcendence, reason, and hope. Fredrick’s connections to the little match girl are undeniably moving, and what later comes of that freezing Christmas Eve night will this time leave you breathless.
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Aug 28, 2011 Meredith White rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gregory Maguire, author of the book Wicked (which became a theatrical phenomenon), wrote a smaller 'gift book' for Christmas based Hans Christian Anderson's Little Match Girl. Matchless: A Christmas Story is his take and spin on the story of a little girl selling matches, succumbed to poverty, and who dies in the midst of a snow and sleet. In Matchless, Gregory Maguire intertwines the life of this little girl with that of Frederick, also a young boy living in a impoverished world, and that of hi...more Gregory Maguire, author of the book Wicked (which became a theatrical phenomenon), wrote a smaller 'gift book' for Christmas based Hans Christian Anderson's Little Match Girl. Matchless: A Christmas Story is his take and spin on the story of a little girl selling matches, succumbed to poverty, and who dies in the midst of a snow and sleet. In Matchless, Gregory Maguire intertwines the life of this little girl with that of Frederick, also a young boy living in a impoverished world, and that of his mother, who upon finding one of the shoes of the little girl returns home with an unknown surprise - a house key. Begging his mother to go to the place where the key belongs, the two find a widower and his two children distraught at the discovery of his daughter, frozen through. Immediately it is Frederick's mother who tends to the two additional children of the widower (who are also ill), and it is the key that brings the family together - the widower marries Frederick's mother. It is the twist at the end of the story, where Frederick becomes lost on Christmas Eve, that is bizarre - unable to make his way home and stranded on a causeway ensuring his death by drowning, the boy asks for help and it is four unexplainable lights that guide his steps, as if someone was lighting a match for him. Obviously, you can assume that it is the legend of this story that Frederick has been guided by the ghost or memory of the little match girl which brings him safely home.

I can't ever remembering reading Hans Christian Anderson's version of The Little Match Girl, as this book was not at all what I had thought. In my own mind, I interpreted the title to mean that Frederick would happen upon a little girl that was literally a match and every time he struck it, he and his mother would experience blessing - I expected the magical illusion of a fairytale to be nothing short of this phenomenon; however, my obviously wrong conclusion combined with the theme of poverty was somewhat blown out of the water, and the message of meeting the needs of others, as well as how our lives intertwine with their's, could simply not be ignored.

I had forgotten that it was not 'long ago in a far away land' that life was different - people were dying of starvation and lack, sickness and no representation. So often, people would die of what today is simplest to cure, and it would happen under the noses of leadership within the country. Civil wars and revolutions set out to bring justice and equality for all, blood was shed to bring about greater representation for the whole of humanity, all in an attempt to make life more livable for the majority. Looking on this today, it would be easy to say that the problem is solved; however, there is still this occuring in our world, everyday. Children left neglected, money running out, the rich continue to get richer and the poor remain in poverty. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a 'rob from the rich' commentary - but rather, a thought that even amidst vast resources, the cycles continue to stay the same. Why? Perhaps because of greed and selfishness, but also because of pride and a lack of education. A greater question is 'Will we ever see change, and if so, what is our role in it?'

Something else that struck me about Matchless, was the contentment of the boy, Frederick. Not having much, he was a good steward of what they did have, and he supported his mother without resentment, but rather with pride and enthusiasm. He began building a small 'city' of baubles, trinkets and it was obvious the ones that meant most to him -these items were the beautiful, but chipped and discarded items that were once prized possessions of their owners. The simple, privileged items that young Frederick received for Christmas (and orange and some cookies) were well received and appreciated. Such a response, both to his mother and to precious items reminded me that not everything should be expected. I want the items that at times I cannot have and instead of understanding that they are not necessities, I complain and despair instead of appreciating what I have. This lesson was a much needed reminder, and one that I had become familiar with abroad, but apparently I had forgotten. Matchless: A Christmas Story was a simple start to the journey through Gregory Maguire's literature. I look forward to diving in, each book I anticipate spinning the fairytales I know and love so well to be seen from a different set of eyes. Should be an interesting adventure to begin.

“The family was still hard-pressed for money, and dreamed of savory treats to eat, but they had the warmth of each one another, and enough on which to live, and in most parts of the world that is called plenty.”
~Matchless: A Christmas Story
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Dec 05, 2009 Annette Gonzalez rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: grade 7-12

Recommended to Annette by: Joseph A. Rochet

Matchless is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's beloved story The Little Match Girl. The story was to be read aloud on NPR by the author on "All Things Considered" Christmas day 2008.

The story intertwines two disparate stories that are ultimately woven together at the end. First we meet Frederik and his mother who are poor and live in a fishing village.The story's setting is " far to the north" imbuing the tale with a sense of cold and desolation. His mother works as the queen's seamstress...more Matchless is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's beloved story The Little Match Girl. The story was to be read aloud on NPR by the author on "All Things Considered" Christmas day 2008.

The story intertwines two disparate stories that are ultimately woven together at the end. First we meet Frederik and his mother who are poor and live in a fishing village.The story's setting is " far to the north" imbuing the tale with a sense of cold and desolation. His mother works as the queen's seamstress. Frederik entertains himself by making a little town out of old sewing spools and other throwaways. One night he finds the old shoe that belonged to the little match girl and his life will be forever changed. Maquire sticks pretty much to the original tale of the match girl making very few changes such as it is not the grandmother who is illuminated with the last match but rather the child's mother who will whisk her away. But Maguire draws a new story involving Frederick and his mother and the family of the match girl that shows that love and miracles extend beyond our earthly plane. Maguire infuses the sad story of the match girl and imbues it with a new life and happier ending. The reader must suspend disbelief in order to believe the coincidences in the tale and it does not delve very deeply into its many themes, but it provides readers a new way to become acquainted with the timelessness of Andersen's original tale of The little Match Girl. Maguire wrote this story as a read-aloud and so it should probably be shared in the tradition of oral storytelling. But this does not detract from the story itself. The voice in the new retelling is one of hope not hopelessness. The Little Match Girl has themes of death, despair and eventual redemption, and Matchless gives us a sense that though Frederick and his mother are poor, their situation is not completely dire and there is hope for a better life to come. Interspersed within the text are simple pencil drawings by Maguire that lend an almost whimsical feel to a story. The retelling tries to capture the essence of the original tale but adds the secondary story to create a happy ending of sorts. Though not as rich in language and imagery as the original Little Match Girl (which in its simplicity created a tale for time immemorial), it is a genuine attempt to be true to the idea that even in the most miserable of circumstances, hope can wax eternal.(less)

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Apr 18, 2011 Monique rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Monique by: K.D. Oliveros

Shelves: children-s, fiction, illustrated, young-adult, retellings, 2011

I know it's still too far away for Christmas for me to be reading this book, but since I've been experiencing some down time in the office today, I decided to find a quick read just to clear the cobwebs off my head. Luckily, my copy (thanks, Kuya Doni!) is sitting on my office table, so I picked it up and was finished it in just a few minutes.

Just the perfect light read, this book. A retelling (or reillumination, in the author's own words) of Hans Christian Andersen's classic story, "The Little...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Claudia rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fairy tale fans

Recommended to Claudia by: Maguire was at ALAN

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

Maguire took one tiny line from Andersen's THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL and wove it into his own fairy tale, and gave us a more hopefull ending. I've always loved Andersen's tragic story of the poor little girl who loses her shoes, tries to keep warm by striking the matches she's supposed to sell, until, ultimately, she freezes to death. The ambiguous ending only adds to the tragedy.

Well, enter Maguire. He creates Frederick, a poor boy who lives with his mother. He finds a shoe on the street (we know i...more

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Dec 06, 2009 Jamie rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is a beautifully designed book. It is a lovely shade of green, and the paper on the front and back covers has a very pretty swirled green pattern. I like that every other page is an illustration, and each illustration is situated within a circle. It seems like a good sort of book to read aloud to a kid, since there's not much text and lots of pictures, and kids aren't very picky.

However, the pictures aren't great (written and illustrated by Gregory Maguire, whose next release will probably...more

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Oct 31, 2009 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

This retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's the Little Match Girl takes place at Christmas, instead of the New Year's, and is as bleak as the original. Maguire invents a secondary character to frame the story, a poor boy named Frederik who is the thief of one of the match seller's shoes, and devises a slightly happier ending where his mother and her father form a family of their own, and Frederik connects a second time with the step-sister he never knew.

The storytelling is deceptively simple, c...more

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Nov 20, 2009 Nely rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

Matchless is a “reillumination” of Hans Christian Andersen's story The Little Match Girl. This book was originally commissioned by NPR and read by Mr. Maguire on "All Things Considered" on Christmas day 2008.

The story is told in four parts. In it we meet Frederik. Frederik and his mother live in a fishing village. They are poor - have very little food and only one match to help keep them warm. His mother is the queen's seamstress and is constantly being called to rescue the queen from her "iron...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'd never read any of Maguire's books before I found a copy of Matchless on the return shelf at my library, and I'd never heard of this book at all. I'm so pleased I picked it up. Not only is it a beautiful book to look at (I just love the marbled endpapers), but it's an engaging story, an ""illumination"" of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. You don't need to buy familiar with The Little Match Girl to enjoy this book (I'd heard of it, but never read it, why is that reading one bo...more

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Oct 09, 2010 kari rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

The little match girl is one of my favorite tales and I was eager to see how this story was expanded upon, maybe what her backstory was, etc. I was somewhat disappointed as the match girl's story is the second part of this book and is almost an exact retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson story. There is a part one and part three about a little boy who has a little fantasy world he's created out of odds and ends. It has a created connection to the match girl, but really doesn't add to her actu...more

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Oct 16, 2010 Janie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Dreckitude.

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I went through a phase where I picked The Little Match Girl as the book for my dad to read to me every night. One night he told me 'I can't read you that book tonight. Pick another book.' When he told me this a couple of nights in a row, I demanded to know why he wouldn't read me my request.

He said it was too sad for him to read all the time.

He had cried when he'd read it to me before, so I knew he thought it was sad. I thought it was sad t...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Teri rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl." I bought this with a lot of trepidation. The book Wicked was so horrible that I have lingering yuck at the thought of reading something he has written. I hope I like this, even a little bit. (It was a $4.00 bargain book, so I didn't shell out too much to give him another try).

This has been called an "illumination" of "The Little Match Girl." I have not read it,(if I did as a child I have completely forgotten). I had nothing to com...more

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Dec 02, 2010 Kristy added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 21, 2011 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

The original tale of the little match girl is too sad for my taste, and though this "illumination" of that story has a happier ending in a way, I did not find it uplifting overall. The main character, Frederik, is a sweet kid, but his mother is portrayed as more of a whiner than a sympathetic character, so it's hard for me to see how the union in part 3 is a desirable one. It is also unclear to me why the little match girl didn't see the point in going home on Christmas Eve; as portrayed in this...more

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Jan 17, 2011 David Anaxagoras rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interesting adaptation/expansion of the original "Little Match Girl" tale, I'm not really sure how I feel about it. On it's own, it's a fine telling, with a smooth, assured narrative voice, and a nice literary roundness. But knowing that this tale basically takes the Little Match Girl's death and tries to make it "meaningful" -- I don't think that's being quite honest and true to the spirit of Andersen's telling. If anything, I think we need to stop rounding off the sharp corners of the stori...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

A creative take on Hans Christian Anderson's "Little Match Girl," which has always been my favorite fairy tale by this author. The original is often the subject of a love/hate relationship with readers due to its sad and all-too-realistic ending, but that is what makes it such a great story - there is refreshing honesty in a tale that reminds us that bad things happen, even on joyous holidays.

However, this retelling is more of an addition, glazing over the Little Match Girl's suffering and inste...more

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About Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire is an American author, whose novels are revisionist retellings of children's stories (such as L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Wicked). He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children'...more

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Books by Gregory Maguire

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6541090-matchless?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347829735l/6541090.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6541090-matchless?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Matchless: A Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire[/url]

Matchless: A Christmas Story

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