The Nightingale

by Lisbeth Zwerger (Illustrator), Hans Christian Andersen, Anthea Bell (Translation)

Though the emperor banishes the nightingale in preference for a jeweled mechanical imitation, the little bird remains faithful and returns years later when the emperor is near death and no one else can help him.

Genres: Picture Books, Classics, China, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1898

About the author

Lisbeth Zwerger is an Austrian illustrator of children's books. For her "lasting contribution to children's literature" she received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1990.

Born in Vienna in 1954, she studied at the local Applied Arts Academy from 1971 to 1974. Since the publication of her first illustrated book in 1977, she has worked as a freelance picture book illustrator specializing in fairy tales.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andersen's tale is even more relevant now, with our smart phones distancing us from real-life experiences, even those of us who are 'peasants' have as much luxury in many ways as the Emperor here does. Andersen's original story is, iiuc, reproduced in full here, which makes the book a bit longer than many picture-books, but all the more delightful for all the details. And Zwerger's illustrations both enhance the text, helping expand on the story, and are simply beautiful.

Highly recommended, especially to fans of 'classic' original tales, those actually written by Andersen, Wilde, and others, rather than those collected and retold from tradition, like Perrault & Grimm. If you haven't yet, find a good collection of Andersen's stories and read them all, in order to realize how many picture-books are adaptations from his genius, often forgetting to credit him.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zwerger's illustrations set a mood that differs significantly from those drawn by Imatoulline. I like both artists.

The page lay out used for this book makes for difficult reading. Line lengths are 7 inches and paragraphs aren't spaced. Hence, each page is a block of text. The version illustrated by Ibatoulline is easier to read.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

serene watercolors. pale blue, peach, and beige robes, reflections in the water, porcelain toys. calming.

[Jackie Ostrowicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a fan of Lisbeth Zwerger’s lovely illustrations. Quite a lot of text—wish it was broken up more. The story, as Hans Christian Anderson’s stories are, is wonderful, though.

[Katie Bathke]

This book is a story of a re-told Chinese tale. It would be great for a lesson on reading different tales from different cultures. The pages in the book have a pattern of words on one page and picture on the other page. There are quite a lot of words so this book I would say would be good for upper elementary to read. It has all negative space. The pictures and words have white backgrounds. This book would also be a good way to show what maybe different cultures look like. For lesson I would find tales that come from many different cultures and see if any of them are the same. Take fairytales from all around the world and compare how they are different or how they are alike.

[Marissa J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is the story of an emperor and a "magical" nightingale that saves his life.

I find this book to have a strange nature. This book is a child's picture book yet the pictures are dull and do not have much details. There is also a huge amount of test on each page. This would be very difficult for children to read. It definitely has a lesson to be learned throughout it but I had a hard time figuring out exactly what the point of the story line is; I am assuming that children would also have a difficult time as well. This would not be my first choice to introduce traditional literature to my students.

[Lindsey Johnson]

I really did not like this book at all. It looks like a chapter book for how long the words are on every page. You would think that they would get shorter but they are all the same length. I think if you read this book to your classroom they would have trouble sitting through the story. Just because it is so long and the pictures are not very colorful and nothing really jumps out and grabs your attention on the pictures. I am not sure who you would read this to because I myself had trouble reading this book because it does not capture my attention.