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Thumbelina & Other Fairytales
A collection of tales includes "Thumbelina," The Brave Tin Soldier," The Princess and the Pea," "The Butterfly," "The Flea and the Professor," "The Flying Trunk," "The Metal Pig," "The Storks," "The Silver Shilling," and "The Nightingale."
Audio CD
First published January 1, 1835
126 people are currently reading
4900 people want to read
About the author
Hans Christian Andersen
7,820 books3,545 followersHans Christian Andersen (often referred to in Scandinavia as H.C. Andersen) was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories — called eventyr, or "fairy-tales" — express themes that transcend age and nationality.
Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Nightingale", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and many more. His stories have inspired plays, ballets, and both live-action and animated films.
Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Nightingale", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and many more. His stories have inspired plays, ballets, and both live-action and animated films.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 438 reviews
August 26, 2022
"Däumelinchen" hat meine Oma mir damals vorgelesen. Ich mag dieses Märchen. Zwar gehört es nicht zu meinen Lieblingsmärchen, aber es weckt Kindheitserinnungen, daher lese ich es immer mal wieder gerne zwischendurch.
November 1, 2024
Thumbelina is a much-loved fairy story by Hans Christian Andersen. It has been told and retold by many authors over the years, as well as being adapted for both television and film. It was first translated into English by Mary Howitt in 1846, from "Tommelise", written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, and published as one of a series of seven fairy tales in 1835. "Tommelise" had been disliked by the critics at the time, for being too informal and chatty, and lacking morals.
Here is one of the original illustrations by Vilhelm Pedersen, to "Tommalise",
The story has undergone several minor changes, but retains its one very strong visual theme. It tells the adventures of a tiny, pretty girl, no bigger than your thumb. The idea was not a new one, however. Jonathan Swift’s satire "Gulliver's Travels" included Lilliputians who were only six inches tall. Voltaire also, like Jonathan Swift, wrote of both giant and miniature peoples. E.T.A. Hoffmann’s "Princess Brambilla” of 1821 even includes a tiny being inside a flower, (plus he wrote another, erotic tale, in which a tiny lady "a span in height" torments the hero).
But perhaps Hans Christian Andersen took the most direct inspiration from the traditional tale of "Tom Thumb". "The History of Tom Thumb" was originally published in 1621, and was the first fairy tale to be printed in English. In both tales, a childless woman consults a supernatural being, to ask for a child. Hans Christian Andersen began his tale with a witch, although part of the sanitisation process began with Mary Howitt replacing this character with an old beggar woman.
I shall now tell the story before commenting further - including the ending (because everyone knows how fairytales end) under a spoiler tag.
The story starts,
"Once there was a woman who longed for a child of her own, but she didn't know how to get one."
Depending on the translation, either a witch or a beggar woman gives the peasant woman a barleycorn. Sometimes it is in exchange for food, and sometimes with mysterious hints about planting the peppercorn in a flowerpot to "see what you shall see!" Once planted, a beautiful tulip soon grows with a tiny girl, Thumbelina (or "Tommelise"), nestling in its flower. Thumbelina and the peasant woman are briefly very happy together.
One night, Thumbelina is sleeping in her walnut-shell cradle, when she is carried off by a wicked female toad who thinks she would make a perfect bride for her son. The toad takes her far away and leaves her on a waterlily pad, coming back later. When Thumbelina wakes, and learns what has happened, she is very unhappy.
"She did not want to live with the horrid old toad or live with her son".
Some little fishes saw her distress, and nibbled the stalk so that the waterlily pad could drift away. A passing butterfly too seemed very taken with the pretty little girl, and Thumbelina tied the butterfly to her sash, so that she could speed along the river faster. They floated along the river this way, until a stag beetle, also smitten by the pretty little girl, snatched Thumbelina away. He ignored the butterfly, who was still anchored to the leaf.
"He thought she was beautiful but when all the others said how ugly she was, he began to believe them".
So the stag beetle listened to his friends, and began to tire of Thumbelina. Eventually his friends cast her out, leaving her perched on a daisy.
"There she sat and wept, because she was so ugly that the beetles didn't want to know her; yet really she was as pretty as can be - as perfect as a rose petal."
Thumbelina lived in the forest for almost a year, becoming very thin and cold. She tried to protect herself from the elements, but when winter came, she eventually went in search of help. A kind old female field mouse took pity on her and gave her shelter. The field mouse tried to convince Thumbelina that her best chance was to make a good marriage, suggesting her friend whose
"house is even bigger than mine, with huge rooms, and he wears a gorgeous black velvet coat".
Thumbelina heard over and over again how handsome and rich the mouse's friend was, and eventually this friend dug a tunnel from their house to his. He was a mole.
The mole did not like any of the same things Thumbelina did. He could not sing; he did not like the sunshine or the flowers. He did not even seem to be bothered about the dead bird at the entrance to his house. Thumbelina felt sorry for the bird, a swallow, and tried to bury him, but he revived, so Thumbelina secretly cared for him all through the winter until he recovered, and "flew away into the dazzling sun".
Thumbelina found the prospect of being married to such a creature repulsive. "She did not care for the boring old mole" because he spent all his days underground and never saw the sun or sky. But the field mouse urged her on, arguing that the mole was such a good match for her, "And he's rich - with the finest kitchen and cellar. You should be thankful".
It's hard to know why this story became such a classic, and particularly why it still has such universal appeal. I strongly suspect it must be the image of the pretty, doll-like little girl inside a tiny flower. The original critics seem to have been rightly concerned about the lack of a moral frame, however. What message is this sending to young children? What of the peasant woman, who is left bereft so shortly after she is given her heart's desire? Or the butterfly, chained forever to the leaf and left to die?
Is the message that if you are pretty you can have everything you want? Or is it that if you are pretty, you never have to do anything for yourself, and everybody will always help you? Is it that if you are ugly, like the toad, or the stagbeetle, you are also bound to be cruel? What are we to make of the entrapment theme, or of marrying the prince of your dreams? Why did Walt Disney choose to make a apparently reasonably faithful adaptation of this story as an animated film as recently as 1994? For my part I almost daren't delve into the subtext of this story.
But then, this is a fairy story, with a fairytale ending. And the more stories I read by this author, with their ugly outcasts, their rejections, humiliations or disappointments, the more I realise that he was inventing fantasies to express his own troubles and deep desires.
I just wish I could get the annoying song out of my head. Danny Kaye sure has a lot to answer for ...
Link here at your own risk!
"Thumbelina, Thumbelina, tiny little thing
Thumbelina dance! Thumbelina sing ..."
Here is one of the original illustrations by Vilhelm Pedersen, to "Tommalise",
The story has undergone several minor changes, but retains its one very strong visual theme. It tells the adventures of a tiny, pretty girl, no bigger than your thumb. The idea was not a new one, however. Jonathan Swift’s satire "Gulliver's Travels" included Lilliputians who were only six inches tall. Voltaire also, like Jonathan Swift, wrote of both giant and miniature peoples. E.T.A. Hoffmann’s "Princess Brambilla” of 1821 even includes a tiny being inside a flower, (plus he wrote another, erotic tale, in which a tiny lady "a span in height" torments the hero).
But perhaps Hans Christian Andersen took the most direct inspiration from the traditional tale of "Tom Thumb". "The History of Tom Thumb" was originally published in 1621, and was the first fairy tale to be printed in English. In both tales, a childless woman consults a supernatural being, to ask for a child. Hans Christian Andersen began his tale with a witch, although part of the sanitisation process began with Mary Howitt replacing this character with an old beggar woman.
I shall now tell the story before commenting further - including the ending (because everyone knows how fairytales end) under a spoiler tag.
The story starts,
"Once there was a woman who longed for a child of her own, but she didn't know how to get one."
Depending on the translation, either a witch or a beggar woman gives the peasant woman a barleycorn. Sometimes it is in exchange for food, and sometimes with mysterious hints about planting the peppercorn in a flowerpot to "see what you shall see!" Once planted, a beautiful tulip soon grows with a tiny girl, Thumbelina (or "Tommelise"), nestling in its flower. Thumbelina and the peasant woman are briefly very happy together.
One night, Thumbelina is sleeping in her walnut-shell cradle, when she is carried off by a wicked female toad who thinks she would make a perfect bride for her son. The toad takes her far away and leaves her on a waterlily pad, coming back later. When Thumbelina wakes, and learns what has happened, she is very unhappy.
"She did not want to live with the horrid old toad or live with her son".
Some little fishes saw her distress, and nibbled the stalk so that the waterlily pad could drift away. A passing butterfly too seemed very taken with the pretty little girl, and Thumbelina tied the butterfly to her sash, so that she could speed along the river faster. They floated along the river this way, until a stag beetle, also smitten by the pretty little girl, snatched Thumbelina away. He ignored the butterfly, who was still anchored to the leaf.
"He thought she was beautiful but when all the others said how ugly she was, he began to believe them".
So the stag beetle listened to his friends, and began to tire of Thumbelina. Eventually his friends cast her out, leaving her perched on a daisy.
"There she sat and wept, because she was so ugly that the beetles didn't want to know her; yet really she was as pretty as can be - as perfect as a rose petal."
Thumbelina lived in the forest for almost a year, becoming very thin and cold. She tried to protect herself from the elements, but when winter came, she eventually went in search of help. A kind old female field mouse took pity on her and gave her shelter. The field mouse tried to convince Thumbelina that her best chance was to make a good marriage, suggesting her friend whose
"house is even bigger than mine, with huge rooms, and he wears a gorgeous black velvet coat".
Thumbelina heard over and over again how handsome and rich the mouse's friend was, and eventually this friend dug a tunnel from their house to his. He was a mole.
The mole did not like any of the same things Thumbelina did. He could not sing; he did not like the sunshine or the flowers. He did not even seem to be bothered about the dead bird at the entrance to his house. Thumbelina felt sorry for the bird, a swallow, and tried to bury him, but he revived, so Thumbelina secretly cared for him all through the winter until he recovered, and "flew away into the dazzling sun".
Thumbelina found the prospect of being married to such a creature repulsive. "She did not care for the boring old mole" because he spent all his days underground and never saw the sun or sky. But the field mouse urged her on, arguing that the mole was such a good match for her, "And he's rich - with the finest kitchen and cellar. You should be thankful".
It's hard to know why this story became such a classic, and particularly why it still has such universal appeal. I strongly suspect it must be the image of the pretty, doll-like little girl inside a tiny flower. The original critics seem to have been rightly concerned about the lack of a moral frame, however. What message is this sending to young children? What of the peasant woman, who is left bereft so shortly after she is given her heart's desire? Or the butterfly, chained forever to the leaf and left to die?
Is the message that if you are pretty you can have everything you want? Or is it that if you are pretty, you never have to do anything for yourself, and everybody will always help you? Is it that if you are ugly, like the toad, or the stagbeetle, you are also bound to be cruel? What are we to make of the entrapment theme, or of marrying the prince of your dreams? Why did Walt Disney choose to make a apparently reasonably faithful adaptation of this story as an animated film as recently as 1994? For my part I almost daren't delve into the subtext of this story.
But then, this is a fairy story, with a fairytale ending. And the more stories I read by this author, with their ugly outcasts, their rejections, humiliations or disappointments, the more I realise that he was inventing fantasies to express his own troubles and deep desires.
I just wish I could get the annoying song out of my head. Danny Kaye sure has a lot to answer for ...
Link here at your own risk!
"Thumbelina, Thumbelina, tiny little thing
Thumbelina dance! Thumbelina sing ..."
September 6, 2018
This book brings back so many happy memories from when I was a child. One of my favourite children's books.
December 26, 2018
Este libro es una joya.
Me han enamorado por completo las ilustraciones. Se nota que el autor siente una total conexión y armonía con la historia, porque siento que de otra manera sus imágenes no hubieran sido tan indicadas y perfectas.
Creo que todos conocéis en menos o mayor manera la historia de Pulgarcita, pero si os gusta mucho o tenéis ganas de conocerla, os recomiendo muchísimo esta edición que acaba de publicar Edelvives. Es de lo más precioso que tengo en mis estanterías.
Me han enamorado por completo las ilustraciones. Se nota que el autor siente una total conexión y armonía con la historia, porque siento que de otra manera sus imágenes no hubieran sido tan indicadas y perfectas.
Creo que todos conocéis en menos o mayor manera la historia de Pulgarcita, pero si os gusta mucho o tenéis ganas de conocerla, os recomiendo muchísimo esta edición que acaba de publicar Edelvives. Es de lo más precioso que tengo en mis estanterías.
December 5, 2016
There he had a nest over the window of a house in which dwelt the writer of fairy tales. The swallow sang, Tweet, tweet, and from his song came the whole story.
OVERVIEW
A woman wants to have a child. She wishes a Fairy for this. The Fairy sells her a seed, tells her to plant it and when the seed will have grown into a flower, there will be a child inside it. The woman finds a girl in the flower when it has grown. The girl is barely 1 inch high. So small. That's why the woman named her Thumbelina . She is also called Little Tiny. One day, a toad kidnaps her to marry Tiny with her son. But the tiny escapes from being married to the toad's son. And from here onwards, she meets the animal who wants to marry her with another animal whom she doesn't like. Again, she escapes from it by the help of swallow who she has helped when he was wounded.
THINGS I LIKED
Thumbelina, the Protagonist:
I liked her sooo much. She is just adorable. Now she is one of my favourite protagonists.
The Scenes:
They are so easy to imagine. I was feeling that I was watching it rather then reading.
THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
What About the Woman?
She didn't appear after the toad kidnapped Tiny. Author didn't mention her. Like he just forgot her. Or he just wanted to bring Tiny in the story. That was really odd.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
This story is kind of adventurous. Tiny goes through many difficulties and tries to sustain herself in different seasons.
I must say, Hans Christian creates very adorable lead characters. I have read his another story few months ago, named "The Little Match Girl". I also liked that story's protagonist. BUT he makes his protagonists to suffer so much. He strongly attaches us with his protagonists and afterwards he makes them to suffer, suffer and JUST suffer.
I am not objecting this thing. I know that's the part of writing. But these things make me little upset. I don't know why.
But I am happy Hans didn't end up this story like the "The Little Match Girl".
January 25, 2019
Esta historia de Pulgarcita la recuerdo de mi infancia, una niña muy pequeña hermosa, pero perseguida por muchos seres feos... lo cual de hecho lo hace extraño y un poco vacío de sentido. Luego de haber nacido de un tulipán gracias a la magia, Pulgarcita será raptada y pasará por un sinfín de aventuras en el que parece todo el mundo quieres obligarla a casarse. Esto le da terror a la pobre Pulgarcita y de hecho me parece muy mortificante como para un libro infantil. En fin, de todas maneras la historia es interesante.
August 7, 2019
Como todas las historias de Andersen, y gracias a este magnífico ilustrador, nos encontramos con una historia que destila belleza por los cuatro costados, llena de sentimiento y un mensaje que no puede ser pasado por alto.
Reseña completa: https://fiebrelectora.blogspot.com/20...
Reseña completa: https://fiebrelectora.blogspot.com/20...
February 11, 2017
خوب بود ولی مثل زمان بچگی ازش لذت نبردم.
تجدید خاطرات و نوستالژی دلچسبی بود.
تجدید خاطرات و نوستالژی دلچسبی بود.
March 18, 2018
My favourite Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale so far. I have always loved the movie and finally read where it came from. Good things come to those who wait! Now were is my prince?
October 23, 2020
Este cuento esta dentro de la colección de Clásicos ilustrados de la cual Benjamín Lacombe es su director artístico, la cual va dirigida a un público diferente al que suelen estar destinados estos cuentos.
En esta adaptación del cuento de Hans Christian Andersen, las ilustraciones también cobran una gran importancia y en éstas son de Marco Mazzoni y me han parecido muy bellas.
En esta adaptación del cuento de Hans Christian Andersen, las ilustraciones también cobran una gran importancia y en éstas son de Marco Mazzoni y me han parecido muy bellas.
May 25, 2017
You can't go wrong with a golden book and a classic fairy tale. The drawings are beautiful, and that alone is worth reading it.
March 6, 2021
This was my Mothers favorite fairytale. She had a beautiful little copy of it that she would let me keep in my room. You opened the book and could wrap it around to form a circle. There was a string on top so you could hang it up and turn it to see all the pretty pictures. My Mom would hang it up and I would stare at it for hours pretending I was Thumbelina. To say I loved this is understatement. Reading this brought back lovely memories. I see why my Mom loved this Fairytale so much. I think this is where my love of fairies was formed. Anyways Thumbelina is a great story and her adventures make me smile.
April 12, 2017
This story was adapted from H.C Andersen.
As a storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen shows taste for the tragic and horrible, even when he was infatuated with the sweet and romantic in "Thumbelina". Poor Thumbelina is abduction by hideous creatures that do not have a sense of her grace and proper nature. However, her patience and striving for true love rewarded in the end when she reaches the end of its tribulations.
"Sweethearts" is in return for a more temporary kind of love that can not withstand the Top and the Ball to wait to be able to get together.
I recommend reading this classic tale, of a well known Danish author who wrote the most spectacular children's stories of our time.
As a storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen shows taste for the tragic and horrible, even when he was infatuated with the sweet and romantic in "Thumbelina". Poor Thumbelina is abduction by hideous creatures that do not have a sense of her grace and proper nature. However, her patience and striving for true love rewarded in the end when she reaches the end of its tribulations.
"Sweethearts" is in return for a more temporary kind of love that can not withstand the Top and the Ball to wait to be able to get together.
I recommend reading this classic tale, of a well known Danish author who wrote the most spectacular children's stories of our time.
May 14, 2017
I don't like this story, never had and never will, the writing was was good but I have a huge problem with the beauty concept in it, the fact that thumbelina was sad because she thought she wasn't beautiful so that even a bug refused to have her, that the toad and his mother were ugly without even knowing them et j'en passe.
October 1, 2022
Däumelinchen ist eine Geschichte, die mir als Kind oft vorgelesen wurde und dadurch einen besonderen Platz in meinem Herzen hat.
Definitiv eins meiner liebsten Märchen von Hans Christian Andersen ♥️
Definitiv eins meiner liebsten Märchen von Hans Christian Andersen ♥️
August 19, 2023
Sewaktu saya menterjemah buku ini, pengembaraan Thumbelina seakan turut membawa saya bersamanya juga. Sejurus selepas menterjemah, saya buka youtube untuk menonton ceritanya.
Sejujurnya, inilah kali pertama saya menonton Thumbelina selain hanya membaca ceritanya sahaja sebelum ini.
Bacaan nipis dan santai ini sesuai untuk semua lapisan umur seawal usia 5 tahun (jika sudah boleh membaca). Tidak hanya dengan itu, ia juga boleh dijadikan bahan bacaan sampingan untuk mengatasi “reading slump”.
Ayuhla bersama-sama menikmati secebis terjemahan ini dengan mengembara bersama Thumbelina!
Sejujurnya, inilah kali pertama saya menonton Thumbelina selain hanya membaca ceritanya sahaja sebelum ini.
Bacaan nipis dan santai ini sesuai untuk semua lapisan umur seawal usia 5 tahun (jika sudah boleh membaca). Tidak hanya dengan itu, ia juga boleh dijadikan bahan bacaan sampingan untuk mengatasi “reading slump”.
Ayuhla bersama-sama menikmati secebis terjemahan ini dengan mengembara bersama Thumbelina!
August 24, 2025
#Binge Reviewing My Previous Reads #Classic fairy tales with Modern Implications
This tale, more commonly known in English as ‘Thumbelina’, is deceptively delicate. It comes to us wrapped in petals, sugared with diminutive imagery, the gentleness of miniature wings and underground burrows. Yet this is not merely a tale of fragility but of survival, displacement, and the perpetual violence that threatens bodies deemed small, feminine, or without economic autonomy.
To reread Pulgarcita in the 21st century is to confront the grotesque underside of what we typically mistake as whimsical: the reduction of the vulnerable to property, the circulation of the female body as a commodity, and the fragile oscillation between captivity and escape. Andersen’s “tiny” heroine is perhaps not small at all; rather, she is made small by a world structured to consume her.
The premise itself enacts a kind of postmodern irony. A woman longs for a child, obtains a barleycorn from a witch, and grows a girl no taller than a thumb. The miracle of artificial birth—an uncanny proto-biotech gesture—situates Pulgarcita at the threshold of modern anxieties around genetic engineering, lab-grown children, and artificial reproductive technologies.
Yet what should be miraculous quickly becomes catastrophic. The girl is kidnapped, bartered, and threatened with marriage multiple times, as if her very existence condemns her to circulation in a violent gift economy. She is tossed between species—toads, moles, and beetles—each representing a form of patriarchal capture.
In this way, the text becomes a fable about forced heteronormativity and compulsory domesticity: every creature wants her not for who she is, but for what she can symbolise as ornament, wife, or possession.
If the tale is unsettling, it is exactly because it demonstrates the near-total absence of agency in a world where size (read: powerlessness) dictates destiny. Postmodern reading compels us to overturn the question: is Thumbelina small, or is the world grotesquely oversized?
Her vulnerability is less natural than systemic, designed by Andersen’s narrative economy where the feminine subject must traverse a gauntlet of predation before stumbling into “proper” union.
The rescue at the end — when she discovers her winged prince among the flower-folk — is not so much liberation as reallocation: from forced marriages to moles and frogs, she graduates to a heteronormative, class-appropriate partner.
The question lingers: has she escaped circulation, or simply been absorbed into a more aesthetically pleasing one?
For the 21st-century reader, Pulgarcita reads uncannily like a parable of trafficking. The repetitive pattern of abduction, coercion, and attempted marriage echoes contemporary reports of child brides, forced migration, and the commodification of girls in global capitalism. The scale of Thumbelina’s body literalises the way patriarchy and capital render women “small” — easily handled, easily exchanged, and easily silenced.
Her size is allegorical, an image of how systems miniaturise female agency until it can be pocketed. The reader cannot miss the violence masked beneath the text’s floral veneer: behind every petal lies a transaction.
Yet Andersen also embeds the possibility of resistance in fragility itself. Pulgarcita does not fight with strength but survives through evasion, kindness, and an instinctive attunement to beauty. Postmodern theory reminds us that weakness, too, is strategy.
Michel de Certeau might say she practises the “tactics” of the powerless — slipping through cracks, surviving long enough for new spaces to open. In an era when precarious labour, refugee crises, and eco-collapse force millions into positions of powerlessness, Thumbelina’s refusal to harden into cynicism resonates. She is soft, but softness is precisely what saves her.
The ecological dimensions of the story demand attention as well. Thumbelina’s life is entangled with nonhuman species: toads, field mice, moles, and swallows. Each encounter stages a meditation on cohabitation, exploitation, or hospitality. The mole wishes to bury her underground, silencing her in the earth’s tomb; the swallow, wounded and dismissed, reciprocates her kindness by carrying her into a new world.
The tale anticipates posthumanist critiques: to be small is also to be relational, vulnerable to and dependent upon other species. If the 21st century has taught us anything through climate catastrophe, it is that survival is ecological, not individual. Pulgarcita embodies that interdependence, even as it exposes its dangers.
From a feminist lens, the narrative dramatises the infantilisation of women. Thumbelina is always “too small” — too small to refuse, too small to command, too small to escape the desirous gazes of others. Yet in being too small, she paradoxically reveals the grotesque excess of her suitors: the mole with his wealth, the frog with his sticky clutch, and the beetle with his grotesque community.
The menagerie of would-be husbands functions as satire of masculinity, exposing its absurdity when juxtaposed with Thumbelina’s delicate proportions. Here Andersen approaches something like Bataillean comedy: the smallness of the girl illuminates the monstrousness of the world.
For 21st-century readers navigating conversations about body politics, agency, and gendered violence, Pulgarcita offers a disquieting mirror. Its flower-petal aesthetic belies its structural cruelty, not unlike how Instagram feeds aestheticise the commodification of women’s bodies today.
The text insists that “smallness” is always socially constructed — whether by patriarchal desire, neoliberal precarity, or ecological collapse. What appears to be a sweet fairy tale is in fact a manual of how the powerless are exchanged, diminished, and occasionally, accidentally, allowed to bloom.
Andersen’s brilliance lies in his refusal to resolve the violence. The happy ending, in which Thumbelina finds her prince, does not erase the narrative’s darker resonances but sharpens them: survival is never innocent, escape never pure.
In the age of global displacement, gendered exploitation, and ecological crisis, Pulgarcita speaks less as a children’s fantasy and more as a fractured allegory of precarious life. It teaches us that to be small is to be endangered, but also to be capable of slipping between the cracks of systems too massive to notice.
In this sense, Pulgarcita is not a story of diminishment, but of scale: the reminder that even the smallest life can expose the oversized cruelty of the world.
This tale, more commonly known in English as ‘Thumbelina’, is deceptively delicate. It comes to us wrapped in petals, sugared with diminutive imagery, the gentleness of miniature wings and underground burrows. Yet this is not merely a tale of fragility but of survival, displacement, and the perpetual violence that threatens bodies deemed small, feminine, or without economic autonomy.
To reread Pulgarcita in the 21st century is to confront the grotesque underside of what we typically mistake as whimsical: the reduction of the vulnerable to property, the circulation of the female body as a commodity, and the fragile oscillation between captivity and escape. Andersen’s “tiny” heroine is perhaps not small at all; rather, she is made small by a world structured to consume her.
The premise itself enacts a kind of postmodern irony. A woman longs for a child, obtains a barleycorn from a witch, and grows a girl no taller than a thumb. The miracle of artificial birth—an uncanny proto-biotech gesture—situates Pulgarcita at the threshold of modern anxieties around genetic engineering, lab-grown children, and artificial reproductive technologies.
Yet what should be miraculous quickly becomes catastrophic. The girl is kidnapped, bartered, and threatened with marriage multiple times, as if her very existence condemns her to circulation in a violent gift economy. She is tossed between species—toads, moles, and beetles—each representing a form of patriarchal capture.
In this way, the text becomes a fable about forced heteronormativity and compulsory domesticity: every creature wants her not for who she is, but for what she can symbolise as ornament, wife, or possession.
If the tale is unsettling, it is exactly because it demonstrates the near-total absence of agency in a world where size (read: powerlessness) dictates destiny. Postmodern reading compels us to overturn the question: is Thumbelina small, or is the world grotesquely oversized?
Her vulnerability is less natural than systemic, designed by Andersen’s narrative economy where the feminine subject must traverse a gauntlet of predation before stumbling into “proper” union.
The rescue at the end — when she discovers her winged prince among the flower-folk — is not so much liberation as reallocation: from forced marriages to moles and frogs, she graduates to a heteronormative, class-appropriate partner.
The question lingers: has she escaped circulation, or simply been absorbed into a more aesthetically pleasing one?
For the 21st-century reader, Pulgarcita reads uncannily like a parable of trafficking. The repetitive pattern of abduction, coercion, and attempted marriage echoes contemporary reports of child brides, forced migration, and the commodification of girls in global capitalism. The scale of Thumbelina’s body literalises the way patriarchy and capital render women “small” — easily handled, easily exchanged, and easily silenced.
Her size is allegorical, an image of how systems miniaturise female agency until it can be pocketed. The reader cannot miss the violence masked beneath the text’s floral veneer: behind every petal lies a transaction.
Yet Andersen also embeds the possibility of resistance in fragility itself. Pulgarcita does not fight with strength but survives through evasion, kindness, and an instinctive attunement to beauty. Postmodern theory reminds us that weakness, too, is strategy.
Michel de Certeau might say she practises the “tactics” of the powerless — slipping through cracks, surviving long enough for new spaces to open. In an era when precarious labour, refugee crises, and eco-collapse force millions into positions of powerlessness, Thumbelina’s refusal to harden into cynicism resonates. She is soft, but softness is precisely what saves her.
The ecological dimensions of the story demand attention as well. Thumbelina’s life is entangled with nonhuman species: toads, field mice, moles, and swallows. Each encounter stages a meditation on cohabitation, exploitation, or hospitality. The mole wishes to bury her underground, silencing her in the earth’s tomb; the swallow, wounded and dismissed, reciprocates her kindness by carrying her into a new world.
The tale anticipates posthumanist critiques: to be small is also to be relational, vulnerable to and dependent upon other species. If the 21st century has taught us anything through climate catastrophe, it is that survival is ecological, not individual. Pulgarcita embodies that interdependence, even as it exposes its dangers.
From a feminist lens, the narrative dramatises the infantilisation of women. Thumbelina is always “too small” — too small to refuse, too small to command, too small to escape the desirous gazes of others. Yet in being too small, she paradoxically reveals the grotesque excess of her suitors: the mole with his wealth, the frog with his sticky clutch, and the beetle with his grotesque community.
The menagerie of would-be husbands functions as satire of masculinity, exposing its absurdity when juxtaposed with Thumbelina’s delicate proportions. Here Andersen approaches something like Bataillean comedy: the smallness of the girl illuminates the monstrousness of the world.
For 21st-century readers navigating conversations about body politics, agency, and gendered violence, Pulgarcita offers a disquieting mirror. Its flower-petal aesthetic belies its structural cruelty, not unlike how Instagram feeds aestheticise the commodification of women’s bodies today.
The text insists that “smallness” is always socially constructed — whether by patriarchal desire, neoliberal precarity, or ecological collapse. What appears to be a sweet fairy tale is in fact a manual of how the powerless are exchanged, diminished, and occasionally, accidentally, allowed to bloom.
Andersen’s brilliance lies in his refusal to resolve the violence. The happy ending, in which Thumbelina finds her prince, does not erase the narrative’s darker resonances but sharpens them: survival is never innocent, escape never pure.
In the age of global displacement, gendered exploitation, and ecological crisis, Pulgarcita speaks less as a children’s fantasy and more as a fractured allegory of precarious life. It teaches us that to be small is to be endangered, but also to be capable of slipping between the cracks of systems too massive to notice.
In this sense, Pulgarcita is not a story of diminishment, but of scale: the reminder that even the smallest life can expose the oversized cruelty of the world.
October 14, 2019
«Η Τοσοδούλα» είναι ένα παραμύθι του Χανς Κρίστιαν Άντερσεν που πρωτοδημοσιεύθηκε στην Κοπεγχάγη το 1835 σε μια συλλογή ιστοριών για μικρά παιδιά. Δεν έτυχε θετικής κριτικής επειδή δεν είχε προφανές ηθικό δίδαγμα κι έτσι ο Άντερσεν απείχε για ένα χρόνο ώσπου να γράψει τα «Καινούργια ρούχα του αυτοκράτορα» και τη «Μικρή γοργόνα». Στα αγγλικά είναι γνωστό ως «Thumbelina», από τη λέξη «thumb» που σημαίνει αντίχειρας. Και πράγματι, η Τοσοδούλα είναι τόσο μικρή όσο το δάχτυλο! Η καλαίσθητη αυτή έκδοση της «Κόκκινης Κλωστής Δεμένης» απευθύνεται σε παιδιά α��ό 8 ετών και πάνω, δίνοντας μια νέα ώθηση σε κλασικά, αγαπημένα κείμενα που συντρόφεψαν τα βράδια της παιδικής μας ηλικίας.
Η Τοσοδούλα βγήκε μέσα από τον σπόρο ενός μικρού κριθαριού που πούλησε μια μάγισσα στην απελπισμένη για παιδί μητέρα της και ζει απίθανες περιπέτειες και στιγμές γεμάτες χαρά αλλά και δυστυχία. Η ομορφιά της μαγεύει διαδοχικά έναν βάτραχο, έναν μπάμπουρα κι έναν τυφλοπόντικα που θέλουν να την παντρευτούν, κάνει φιλίες μ’ ένα χελιδόνι και μια ποντικίνα, ο χαρακτήρας και η συμπεριφορά της τη βοηθάνε να ξεφεύγει από δύσκολες στιγμές και να κάνει καλούς φίλους και η όλη περιπέτεια που ζει είναι ακριβώς ο αγώνας που δίνουμε όλοι για να βρούμε ποιοι πραγματικά είμαστε, πού ταιριάζουμε, τι θέλουμε και τι μας ευχαριστεί, δηλαδή ένα ταξίδι αυτογνωσίας. Μέσα από αυτό το παραμύθι ο μικρός αναγνώστης βρίσκει πάρα πολλά νοήματα: ο εγωισμός δεν κάνει καλό, η αγάπη, το χάδι και η άδολη, χωρίς ανταλλάγματα αγάπη, επουλώνει τις πληγές και ξαναδίνει ζωή, οφείλουμε ν’ αγαπάμε και να σεβόμαστε το μεγαλείο της φύσης που μας περιβάλλει, είναι επικίνδυνο να παρασυρόμαστε από τις γνώμες των άλλων για κάτι που θέλουμε εμείς γιατί σύντομα θα βλέπουμε με ξένα μάτια, παραγκωνίζοντας τις δικές μας επιθυμίες, ευγνωμοσύνη, βοήθεια, αγάπη και πάρα πολλά άλλα. Η εξιστόρηση είναι γραμμική αλλά οι πολλές ανατροπές φέρνουν αγωνία και κανείς δεν ξέρει τι θα συμβεί παρακάτω. Το αναμενόμενο happy end δείχνει εμμέσως πόσο καλύτερα μπορεί να νιώθει κάποιος όταν είναι με τους ομοίους του παρά με διαφορετικούς ανθρώπους ή άλλα πλάσματα. Η διασκευή είναι του Νταβίντ Σοντί (1819-1884), που έγινε γνωστός για τις πρώτες μεταφράσεις των παραμυθιών του Άντερσεν στα γαλλικά μεταξύ 1856 και 1861.
Η εικονογράφηση του Μάρκο Ματσόνι είναι αριστουργηματική. Χρησιμοποιώντας ξυλομπογιές, ένα υλικό που σύντομα ο αναγνώστης ξεχνάει, βουτηγμένος σ’ έναν ωκεανό σχεδόν ανάγλυφων και άκρως ρεαλιστικών εικόνων, που δύσκολα λες πως προήλθαν όντως από κάτι τόσο ταπεινό, ο Ματσόνι δημιουργεί ένα εξαιρετικό οπτικό αποτέλεσμα βασισμένο στο κυανό, τη ματζέντα και το κίτρινο. Με μεγάλη μου έκπληξη διαπίστωσα, όπως διάβασα και στον επίλογο του παραμυθιού, πως οι εικόνες ακολουθούν ακριβώς την πορεία της εσωτερικής μεταμόρφωσης της Τοσοδούλας και από απλά σκίτσα καταλήγουμε σε εξαιρετικούς λεπτομερείς και παραστατικούς πίνακες ζωγραφικής. Είναι ασύλληπτος ο τρόπος με τον οποίο αναμιγνύονται αρμονικά πέταλα και άνθη με τα μαλλιά και το πρόσωπο της Τοσοδούλας, πώς τοποθετούνται τα πουλιά, τα βατράχια, τα ψάρια, η πεταλούδα, ο τυφλοπόντικας στο πλάι της ηρωίδας, πόσες κρυμμένες εικόνες υπάρχουν πίσω από κάθε σελίδα και πόσο ανάγλυφα και παραστατικά αποδίδονται τα χελιδόνια αλλά και ο ίδιος ο Άντερσεν σ’ ένα φινάλε-φόρος τιμής στον μεγάλο παραμυθά. Το μεγάλο μέγεθος του βιβλίου επιτρέπει χιλιάδες λεπτά ενατένισης και παρατήρησης, βυθίζει τον αναγνώστη σ’ ένα χρωματιστό σύμπαν και δημιουργεί μαγευτικά τοπία που αφήνουν τη φαντασία ελεύθερη!
Η «Κόκκινη Κλωστή Δεμένη» με αυτό το βιβλίο αποδίδεται σ’ έναν όμορφο εκδοτικό άθλο υλοποιώντας την επιθυμία των εκδοτών να παρουσιάσουν κλασικά κείμενα μ’ έναν καινούργιο τρόπο, προσεγγίζοντας έτσι ένα διαφορετικό κοινό απ’ αυτό στο οποίο απευθύνονται αυτά συνήθως. Η σειρά, με επιμέλεια του Μπενζαμέν Λακόμπ, είναι δομημένη γύρω από την εικόνα, σέβεται τα κλασικά έργα κι έχει ως στόχο να τα παρουσιάσει σε όσους αγαπούν την οπτική αφήγηση. Διαβάζουμε στον επίλογο του βιβλίου: «Ο καλλιτέχνης που επιλέχθηκε να δουλέψει πάνω σε κάθε κείμενο είναι ο ίδιος στενά συνδεδεμένος με αυτά, με αποτέλεσμα να παρουσιάζει μια προσωπική, υποκειμενική και ειλικρινή οπτική του έργου. Αυτό είναι το κλειδί της συγκεκριμένης σειράς: το σύμπαν κάθε κειμένου παραμένει μοναδικό ενώ ταυτόχρονα αποτελεί μέλος μιας μεγάλης οικογένειας κλασικών έργων με σύγχρονη εικονογράφηση». Είναι μια καλαίσθητη και φροντισμένη έκδοση που δεν πρέπει να χάσετε.
Η Τοσοδούλα βγήκε μέσα από τον σπόρο ενός μικρού κριθαριού που πούλησε μια μάγισσα στην απελπισμένη για παιδί μητέρα της και ζει απίθανες περιπέτειες και στιγμές γεμάτες χαρά αλλά και δυστυχία. Η ομορφιά της μαγεύει διαδοχικά έναν βάτραχο, έναν μπάμπουρα κι έναν τυφλοπόντικα που θέλουν να την παντρευτούν, κάνει φιλίες μ’ ένα χελιδόνι και μια ποντικίνα, ο χαρακτήρας και η συμπεριφορά της τη βοηθάνε να ξεφεύγει από δύσκολες στιγμές και να κάνει καλούς φίλους και η όλη περιπέτεια που ζει είναι ακριβώς ο αγώνας που δίνουμε όλοι για να βρούμε ποιοι πραγματικά είμαστε, πού ταιριάζουμε, τι θέλουμε και τι μας ευχαριστεί, δηλαδή ένα ταξίδι αυτογνωσίας. Μέσα από αυτό το παραμύθι ο μικρός αναγνώστης βρίσκει πάρα πολλά νοήματα: ο εγωισμός δεν κάνει καλό, η αγάπη, το χάδι και η άδολη, χωρίς ανταλλάγματα αγάπη, επουλώνει τις πληγές και ξαναδίνει ζωή, οφείλουμε ν’ αγαπάμε και να σεβόμαστε το μεγαλείο της φύσης που μας περιβάλλει, είναι επικίνδυνο να παρασυρόμαστε από τις γνώμες των άλλων για κάτι που θέλουμε εμείς γιατί σύντομα θα βλέπουμε με ξένα μάτια, παραγκωνίζοντας τις δικές μας επιθυμίες, ευγνωμοσύνη, βοήθεια, αγάπη και πάρα πολλά άλλα. Η εξιστόρηση είναι γραμμική αλλά οι πολλές ανατροπές φέρνουν αγωνία και κανείς δεν ξέρει τι θα συμβεί παρακάτω. Το αναμενόμενο happy end δείχνει εμμέσως πόσο καλύτερα μπορεί να νιώθει κάποιος όταν είναι με τους ομοίους του παρά με διαφορετικούς ανθρώπους ή άλλα πλάσματα. Η διασκευή είναι του Νταβίντ Σοντί (1819-1884), που έγινε γνωστός για τις πρώτες μεταφράσεις των παραμυθιών του Άντερσεν στα γαλλικά μεταξύ 1856 και 1861.
Η εικονογράφηση του Μάρκο Ματσόνι είναι αριστουργηματική. Χρησιμοποιώντας ξυλομπογιές, ένα υλικό που σύντομα ο αναγνώστης ξεχνάει, βουτηγμένος σ’ έναν ωκεανό σχεδόν ανάγλυφων και άκρως ρεαλιστικών εικόνων, που δύσκολα λες πως προήλθαν όντως από κάτι τόσο ταπεινό, ο Ματσόνι δημιουργεί ένα εξαιρετικό οπτικό αποτέλεσμα βασισμένο στο κυανό, τη ματζέντα και το κίτρινο. Με μεγάλη μου έκπληξη διαπίστωσα, όπως διάβασα και στον επίλογο του παραμυθιού, πως οι εικόνες ακολουθούν ακριβώς την πορεία της εσωτερικής μεταμόρφωσης της Τοσοδούλας και από απλά σκίτσα καταλήγουμε σε εξαιρετικούς λεπτομερείς και παραστατικούς πίνακες ζωγραφικής. Είναι ασύλληπτος ο τρόπος με τον οποίο αναμιγνύονται αρμονικά πέταλα και άνθη με τα μαλλιά και το πρόσωπο της Τοσοδούλας, πώς τοποθετούνται τα πουλιά, τα βατράχια, τα ψάρια, η πεταλούδα, ο τυφλοπόντικας στο πλάι της ηρωίδας, πόσες κρυμμένες εικόνες υπάρχουν πίσω από κάθε σελίδα και πόσο ανάγλυφα και παραστατικά αποδίδονται τα χελιδόνια αλλά και ο ίδιος ο Άντερσεν σ’ ένα φινάλε-φόρος τιμής στον μεγάλο παραμυθά. Το μεγάλο μέγεθος του βιβλίου επιτρέπει χιλιάδες λεπτά ενατένισης και παρατήρησης, βυθίζει τον αναγνώστη σ’ ένα χρωματιστό σύμπαν και δημιουργεί μαγευτικά τοπία που αφήνουν τη φαντασία ελεύθερη!
Η «Κόκκινη Κλωστή Δεμένη» με αυτό το βιβλίο αποδίδεται σ’ έναν όμορφο εκδοτικό άθλο υλοποιώντας την επιθυμία των εκδοτών να παρουσιάσουν κλασικά κείμενα μ’ έναν καινούργιο τρόπο, προσεγγίζοντας έτσι ένα διαφορετικό κοινό απ’ αυτό στο οποίο απευθύνονται αυτά συνήθως. Η σειρά, με επιμέλεια του Μπενζαμέν Λακόμπ, είναι δομημένη γύρω από την εικόνα, σέβεται τα κλασικά έργα κι έχει ως στόχο να τα παρουσιάσει σε όσους αγαπούν την οπτική αφήγηση. Διαβάζουμε στον επίλογο του βιβλίου: «Ο καλλιτέχνης που επιλέχθηκε να δουλέψει πάνω σε κάθε κείμενο είναι ο ίδιος στενά συνδεδεμένος με αυτά, με αποτέλεσμα να παρουσιάζει μια προσωπική, υποκειμενική και ειλικρινή οπτική του έργου. Αυτό είναι το κλειδί της συγκεκριμένης σειράς: το σύμπαν κάθε κειμένου παραμένει μοναδικό ενώ ταυτόχρονα αποτελεί μέλος μιας μεγάλης οικογένειας κλασικών έργων με σύγχρονη εικονογράφηση». Είναι μια καλαίσθητη και φροντισμένη έκδοση που δεν πρέπει να χάσετε.
January 22, 2019
Thumbeline, illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger.
Named Tommelise in the original Danish, the diminutive heroine of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale has been variously known in English as Little Ellie, Little Totty, Little Maja, Inchelina, Thumbelisa, and - of course - Thumbelina. Anthea Bell's 1980 translation of the story, reprinted earlier this year (2009), features the only appearance - so far as I know - of Thumbeline. Done to distinguish her work from other translations and adaptations? Possibly... But leaving aside this titular diversion, Bell's narrative is immensely faithful to the original, and should be most welcome to readers looking for a complete retelling of the tale.
The illustrations are done by the immensely talented Lisbeth Zwerger, whose fairy-tale work has included a number of other Andersen tales, from The Nightingale to The Little Mermaid . Full page paintings are paired with full-page text, and are a little bit darker than many of the other contemporary interpretations I have seen. I was reminded, in some scenes, of Arthur Rackham's illustrations. All in all, a lovely little book, and a fine addition to the many editions of Thumbelina (or Thumbeline) currently available.
Named Tommelise in the original Danish, the diminutive heroine of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale has been variously known in English as Little Ellie, Little Totty, Little Maja, Inchelina, Thumbelisa, and - of course - Thumbelina. Anthea Bell's 1980 translation of the story, reprinted earlier this year (2009), features the only appearance - so far as I know - of Thumbeline. Done to distinguish her work from other translations and adaptations? Possibly... But leaving aside this titular diversion, Bell's narrative is immensely faithful to the original, and should be most welcome to readers looking for a complete retelling of the tale.
The illustrations are done by the immensely talented Lisbeth Zwerger, whose fairy-tale work has included a number of other Andersen tales, from The Nightingale to The Little Mermaid . Full page paintings are paired with full-page text, and are a little bit darker than many of the other contemporary interpretations I have seen. I was reminded, in some scenes, of Arthur Rackham's illustrations. All in all, a lovely little book, and a fine addition to the many editions of Thumbelina (or Thumbeline) currently available.
December 25, 2012
Input had to read this over again. It is such a great " fairy tale", classic. HCA is one of my favorite authors, and always.will be. Besides tiny cute thugs are always in.
This version is so beautifully done, in watercolor, that is fluid and almost delicious, in its technique. I love the retelling of tales, especially when done so well.KUDOSK
This version is so beautifully done, in watercolor, that is fluid and almost delicious, in its technique. I love the retelling of tales, especially when done so well.KUDOSK
February 1, 2020
Pura belleza. Aparte de la personalidad y originalidad de las ilustraciones de Marzo Mazzoni, su estilo otorga el aire fantástico y delicado que este cuento necesita. Su mezcla de la figura de la protagonista, las flores y los animales con una paleta cromática de azules, rojos y blancos es maravillosa.
October 4, 2018
One of my absolute favourite fairy tales by one of my favourite story tellers! Such a beautiful, classic little fable that paints gorgeous images. I don’t recall hearing this for the first time, but I feel like I’ve just always known it. Wonderful to revisit a childhood classic like this!
May 16, 2024
I love this book. Its sad sometimes, but I like the happy ending. And Thumbelina found love. This is one of the best fairy tales I ever read as a child
October 7, 2023
Ένα από τα πιο κλασικά παραμύθια όλων των εποχών που σε ξαναγυρίζουν στην εποχή που ήσουν παιδί!
January 29, 2019
Thumbelina, illustrated by Arlene Graston.
Originally published in 1835, as part of the second booklet of Andersen's Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. (Fairy Tales Told for Children, First Collection), Thumbelina has been interpreted as everything from an allegory of Christian suffering and salvation, to a tale of female masturbation. Needless to say, younger readers will probably just appreciate it as an exciting adventure story, albeit one with a fairly passive heroine.
This edition features the translation of Eric Christian Haugaard - whose 1973 tome, The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories , has become something of a standard in the field - and it reads very well. Arlene Graston's watercolor illustrations are a pleasant accompaniment to the tale, although I sometimes found them a little too dark for my taste. I wasn't sure what to make of the subtle mosaic-like pattern she used as a background in her paintings, which sometimes worked very well, and sometimes seemed out of place. Still, despite these qualifications, I found this to be a charming retelling, and while it doesn't quite equal the Lauren Mills Thumbelina in my esteem, it has great narrative and aesthetic appeal.
Originally published in 1835, as part of the second booklet of Andersen's Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. (Fairy Tales Told for Children, First Collection), Thumbelina has been interpreted as everything from an allegory of Christian suffering and salvation, to a tale of female masturbation. Needless to say, younger readers will probably just appreciate it as an exciting adventure story, albeit one with a fairly passive heroine.
This edition features the translation of Eric Christian Haugaard - whose 1973 tome, The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories , has become something of a standard in the field - and it reads very well. Arlene Graston's watercolor illustrations are a pleasant accompaniment to the tale, although I sometimes found them a little too dark for my taste. I wasn't sure what to make of the subtle mosaic-like pattern she used as a background in her paintings, which sometimes worked very well, and sometimes seemed out of place. Still, despite these qualifications, I found this to be a charming retelling, and while it doesn't quite equal the Lauren Mills Thumbelina in my esteem, it has great narrative and aesthetic appeal.
October 29, 2023
Congrats Sue Oshin untuk terjemahan Thumbelina ini. Nama Sue Oshin bukan satu nama baru di Biblio Press. Before this penulis ada juga terjemahkan satu buku bertajuk Heidi. Yang itu nanti kita nak baca la :)
Sebenarnya saya memang tak berapa gemar membaca buku yang diterjemah. Sebab rasa macam tak boleh 'masuk' sikit dengan bahasa yang digunakan. Silap haribulan jadi lagi tak faham 🤣 Tapi, untuk Thumbelina ni. Saya enjoy baca. Bonus sebab nipis. Dan yang paling penting, ingat Thumbelina terus teringat movie Peter Pan. In one sitting sahaja dapat habiskan pembacaan.
Tapi to be honest, ini first time saya tahu pasal Thumbelina. Seronok juga. Adventure juga yang perjalanan dia untuk bertemu dengan sama jenis dengan dia. Belum lagi cerita pasal dia kena kidnap dengan katak & tikus. Ceritanya simple dan straightforward. Mudah difahami dan ya budak-budak mesti seronok baca.
Bermula dari keinginan seorang wanita untuk memiliki anak - jumpa ahli sihir - diberikan benih biji buah barli - lahirlah Thumbelina.
yakni sangat kecil, rapi dan cantik. Saiznya sebesar ibu jari maka mereka memanggilnya Thumbelina 🧚🏻♀️
Happy ending untuk Thumbelina. Sad ending la kan untuk perempuan yang nak anak tu? Betul tak?
Sebenarnya saya memang tak berapa gemar membaca buku yang diterjemah. Sebab rasa macam tak boleh 'masuk' sikit dengan bahasa yang digunakan. Silap haribulan jadi lagi tak faham 🤣 Tapi, untuk Thumbelina ni. Saya enjoy baca. Bonus sebab nipis. Dan yang paling penting, ingat Thumbelina terus teringat movie Peter Pan. In one sitting sahaja dapat habiskan pembacaan.
Tapi to be honest, ini first time saya tahu pasal Thumbelina. Seronok juga. Adventure juga yang perjalanan dia untuk bertemu dengan sama jenis dengan dia. Belum lagi cerita pasal dia kena kidnap dengan katak & tikus. Ceritanya simple dan straightforward. Mudah difahami dan ya budak-budak mesti seronok baca.
Bermula dari keinginan seorang wanita untuk memiliki anak - jumpa ahli sihir - diberikan benih biji buah barli - lahirlah Thumbelina.
yakni sangat kecil, rapi dan cantik. Saiznya sebesar ibu jari maka mereka memanggilnya Thumbelina 🧚🏻♀️
Happy ending untuk Thumbelina. Sad ending la kan untuk perempuan yang nak anak tu? Betul tak?
January 23, 2019
Thumbelina, illustrated by Brad Sneed.
Wow! Is this really the ninth picture-book version of Thumbelina I've read and reviewed - the tenth, if you count Thumbelina of Toulaba - for my Hans Christian Andersen project? Color me obsessed! And color it is, that makes this adaptation illustrated by Brad Sneed such a pleasure! With deep-toned watercolor illustrations, created with vivid greens and blues, and gorgeous reds and yellows, this edition of Andersen's classic tale of a diminutive girl who must escape a series of unappealing would-be bridegrooms, before finding the ideal mate, is a visual feast.
The narrative is mostly faithful to the original, but even if it weren't I would still have enjoyed Sneed's artwork. All things considered, I'm glad I decided to take a look at this recent edition, although I think I may be done with this tale for the forseeable future...
Wow! Is this really the ninth picture-book version of Thumbelina I've read and reviewed - the tenth, if you count Thumbelina of Toulaba - for my Hans Christian Andersen project? Color me obsessed! And color it is, that makes this adaptation illustrated by Brad Sneed such a pleasure! With deep-toned watercolor illustrations, created with vivid greens and blues, and gorgeous reds and yellows, this edition of Andersen's classic tale of a diminutive girl who must escape a series of unappealing would-be bridegrooms, before finding the ideal mate, is a visual feast.
The narrative is mostly faithful to the original, but even if it weren't I would still have enjoyed Sneed's artwork. All things considered, I'm glad I decided to take a look at this recent edition, although I think I may be done with this tale for the forseeable future...
December 17, 2019
RESEÑA COMPLETA: https://letraslibrosymas.blogspot.com...
Este libro es una joya que todo el mundo debería poder disfrutar y tener en sus estanterías, primero para conocer el cuento clásico, yo por ejemplo hasta ahora no lo había leído nunca y me ha impresionado la historia que me he encontrado porque es un poco rara, con algún toque oscuro pero sin perder el encanto de los cuentos de antes, y después por lo trabajada que está la edición.
Un cuento clásico de la literatura con una edición extraordinaria.
Este libro es una joya que todo el mundo debería poder disfrutar y tener en sus estanterías, primero para conocer el cuento clásico, yo por ejemplo hasta ahora no lo había leído nunca y me ha impresionado la historia que me he encontrado porque es un poco rara, con algún toque oscuro pero sin perder el encanto de los cuentos de antes, y después por lo trabajada que está la edición.
Un cuento clásico de la literatura con una edición extraordinaria.
March 2, 2022
It’s extremely irritating that this is a completely different version of this story, different authors and illustrators, and yet it comes up as the same one I read with the kids earlier this month. Good reads, this needs to CHANGE.
Another source of irritation. Another version of Thumbina read tonight and it shows as read. All the Thumbslinas wrapped up in one. Boo. No way to differentiate. 😡
Another source of irritation. Another version of Thumbina read tonight and it shows as read. All the Thumbslinas wrapped up in one. Boo. No way to differentiate. 😡
October 12, 2016
A very sweet and beautiful story. You almost don't want it to end.
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