THE VALUE OF FANTASY -- THE STORY OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

ValueTales Series

by Spencer Johnson

Concentrates on the fantasies that dominated Andersen's life as an imaginative child and as an adult, showing that fantasy enriches one's life and can shape one's future

Genres: Biography, Childrens, Picture Books, History

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Patrick Spencer Johnson was an American writer. He was known for the ValueTales series of children's books, and for his 1998 self-help book Who Moved My Cheese?, which recurred on the New York Times Bestseller list, on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover nonfiction list. Johnson was the chairman of Spencer Johnson Partners.

Reviews

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My six year old read and reviewed this book.

"I liked it. The story is about Hans Christian who grew up to be a famous writer. I enjoyed it because I want to become a writer."

Did you learn anything from this book?
"He wanted to go to China and have some mini cakes with the Emperor of China."

Wait. What?
"When he was a little kid he made a fort where he imaged having mini cakes with the Emperor of China."

Oh. What did you think about that?
"Funny!"

My son felt a little bit hurt to see the poor reviews on this book because he likes it so much. He can't imagine anyone giving it less than five stars.

[Magenta Cooly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these books so much! We were always home schooled, and as part of history Mom would read them to us once a week.
I would love to get the rest of them!

[Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moderately interesting story about Hans Christian Andersen. But the book does a poor job of showing the importance of fantasy to the reader.

[Jeffrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another poor treatment of the life of Andersen - a very bad way to introduce young readers to this master storyteller - a very flawed text is matched with cartoon illustrations that are just awful

[Krystal]

Revisiting this book series I used to read when I was a little girl.

[C.G. Fewston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was a kid and remember it fondly, and will have to revisit it with my children.

[Elizabeth Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread this book as I was packing this series in a box to give away. I remember my mother reading this book and the rest of the series. I learned about a famous person in history and a character trait. I truly enjoyed this series when I was younger.