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Thumbelina
Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairytale, which he stated he had heard from a swallow, who had a nest outside the window of his house and who went to him one summer and sang him the story!
Thumbelina is pretty and kind - and as tiny as your thumb. Flowers tower above her and birds can carry her on their backs. When she's abandoned in the outside world, she faces some very big adventures indeed.
Thumbelina is pretty and kind - and as tiny as your thumb. Flowers tower above her and birds can carry her on their backs. When she's abandoned in the outside world, she faces some very big adventures indeed.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published December 26, 2008
About the author
Susanna Davidson
171 books19 followersSusanna Davidson also writes as Zanna Davidson.
She joined Usborne Publishing almost straight out of university and has been writing books for them pretty much ever since. She has written about everything from dinosaurs to the Queen to Fairy Ponies and tiny monsters, small enough to fit in your pocket. She is also a mum of two boys and works from home, where she spends most of her time talking to the dog and trying not to eat too much cheese.
She joined Usborne Publishing almost straight out of university and has been writing books for them pretty much ever since. She has written about everything from dinosaurs to the Queen to Fairy Ponies and tiny monsters, small enough to fit in your pocket. She is also a mum of two boys and works from home, where she spends most of her time talking to the dog and trying not to eat too much cheese.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 30, 2020
Hans Christian Andersen's classic 1835 fairytale is superbly retold by Susanna Davidson and beautifully illustrated by Petra Brown in this edition which is aimed at children who are learning to read.
Susanna Davidson misses nothing of import beginning with the lady who wants a child and who receives a magic seed from a fairy. She plants it, a flower grows and when the petals open the woman discovers a tiny girl who she decides to call Thumbelina. The woman makes her a bed out of a walnut shell and covers her with petals from the flower to keep her warm.
Thumbelina sings as she floats every day on a tulip leaf in a saucer of water. But danger is on the horizon as a nasty toad espies her and carries her away to make her a wife for her son. Thumbelina is far from happy as she doesn't want to marry a toad. Fortunately for her, some sympathetic fish hear her crying and they nibble at the leaf on which she had been placed and it floats away downstream ... she is free from the toad.
She encounters more trouble when a beetle takes her away but the beetle family think that she is ugly so they drop her in a field to get rid of her. In the field Thumberlina makes herself a bed from blades of grass and uses a large leaf as shelter from the rain.
She is discovered by a field mouse who takes her home and introduces her to his friend the mole, who wants Thumberlina to live with him underground. And in his underground home, Thumberlina comes across a swallow who appears to be dead. But he isn't and Thumberlina nurses him back to good health and when he is fully recovered he flies away.
Meantime the field mouse tells Thumberlina that Mole wants to marry her. Again she is not happy but, resigned to the fact, she goes outside to say a final goodbye to the glorious blue sky. And there is her swallow to whom she tells her sad tale. He proves to be a swallow in shining armour as he spirits her away out of reach of the mole.
Not only that he has a surprise in store for her as he takes her to an exciting new, and happy life where she meets many new friends.
Exquisitely told and illustrated, this edition uses easy to understand text that will excite and inspire any beginner reader - and some older ones, too!
Susanna Davidson misses nothing of import beginning with the lady who wants a child and who receives a magic seed from a fairy. She plants it, a flower grows and when the petals open the woman discovers a tiny girl who she decides to call Thumbelina. The woman makes her a bed out of a walnut shell and covers her with petals from the flower to keep her warm.
Thumbelina sings as she floats every day on a tulip leaf in a saucer of water. But danger is on the horizon as a nasty toad espies her and carries her away to make her a wife for her son. Thumbelina is far from happy as she doesn't want to marry a toad. Fortunately for her, some sympathetic fish hear her crying and they nibble at the leaf on which she had been placed and it floats away downstream ... she is free from the toad.
She encounters more trouble when a beetle takes her away but the beetle family think that she is ugly so they drop her in a field to get rid of her. In the field Thumberlina makes herself a bed from blades of grass and uses a large leaf as shelter from the rain.
She is discovered by a field mouse who takes her home and introduces her to his friend the mole, who wants Thumberlina to live with him underground. And in his underground home, Thumberlina comes across a swallow who appears to be dead. But he isn't and Thumberlina nurses him back to good health and when he is fully recovered he flies away.
Meantime the field mouse tells Thumberlina that Mole wants to marry her. Again she is not happy but, resigned to the fact, she goes outside to say a final goodbye to the glorious blue sky. And there is her swallow to whom she tells her sad tale. He proves to be a swallow in shining armour as he spirits her away out of reach of the mole.
Not only that he has a surprise in store for her as he takes her to an exciting new, and happy life where she meets many new friends.
Exquisitely told and illustrated, this edition uses easy to understand text that will excite and inspire any beginner reader - and some older ones, too!
July 12, 2015
It was good
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews