Review by New York Times Review
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN'S 1836 "Thumbelina" is the story of a tiny, passive girl, no bigger than your thumb. She is good at cleaning and music. She has a kind heart. She is exceptionally good-looking and modest. "She had no way of knowing how lovely she was," as Sylvia Long puts it in her retelling. Everyone loves Thumbelina. In fact, they love her so much they want to either abduct her, marry her or rescue her. There seems to be nothing else to do with Thumbelina, actually. Here's the story: Magically born from a flower, tiny Thumbelina is soon kidnapped by horrid toads for purposes of marriage. She's rescued by fish and a butterfly, abducted by an amorous beetle, abandoned, adopted by a mouse, forced to marry a mole and rescued by a swallow just before the wedding. Then she marries royalty and lives happily ever after. The tale may be inherently irritating to parents hoping to present their children with models of girls and women not so mired in the values of Andersen's 19th century. These two new editions, though lovely, compound this problem by portraying Thumbelina as a blue-eyed white girl possessing the even features and slim build that have been representing ideal beauty to Westerners for more than a century. It's a bit depressing, actually, that neither book pushes to reimagine the story visually. Yes, it's nice to have pretty new pictures of a famous tale, but beyond that, why this story? What interpretation are the artists offering? Why revisit "Thumbelina" now? There are no answers in these two books. They are conventional as can be - staid, even - though that's not to say that they're without value. Both are exceedingly attractive, and the story is a wild adventure filled with eccentric animal characters. My 8-year-old, who usually considers herself rather old for picture books, grabbed them off my desk and read them cover to cover one after the other. Thumbelinas drawn by Sylvia Long, above, and Bagram Ibatoulline, below. Long is best known for illustrating the spectacularly beautiful picture book "An Egg Is Quiet" by Dianna Aston. Her watercolors bring out the wonder of the natural world with an almost emotional intensity. Several spreads in her "Thumbelina" are vertical, requiring children to turn them to get a proper look, emphasizing that the book is as much a beautiful object as a story to get lost in. THE old mama toad in Long's book seems anatomically correct down to the flecks in the irises, making her all the more horrifying. The beetles, though dressed in pearls and filmy gowns, have detailed wings and antennas. The water, the flowers, the gently cloudy sky, the snowcapped mountains beneath the swallow as it flies - all these are so gorgeously and specifically rendered that the centerpiece of the story almost seems to be the landscape as tiny Thumbelina sees it. Long's version is quite faithful to Andersen's original, which is to say wordy and full of details: "She wove herself a bed out of blades of grass and hung it under clover leaves for protection from the rain. She sucked nectar from the flowers for food and drank dew from their leaves every morning." It's well suited to older readers and fairy tale fans. Brian Alderson's "Thumbelina" is more of a departure from the original, though he's known as an Andersen translator ("The Swan's Stories"). His approach is great for reading aloud to small children, since his short sentences and rhythmic language emphasize character. Descriptive passages are axed in favor of dialogue. For example, in Long's book, the mama toad thinks, "What a pretty little wife she would make for my son." Alderson's croaks: "Rek-kek-kek-kek. What a catchi-catchi-catch. She shall wed my Toadikins." Long's field mouse scolds, "Nonsense!" when Thumbelina objects to spending her life underground with the pompous blind mole. Alderson's snaps, "Now don't be obstropolous." Thumbelinas drawn by Sylvia Long, above, and Bagram Ibatoulline, below. Alderson's version is a vigorous interpretation, though it doesn't particularly energize its heroine. Thumbelina herself speaks only a single sentence: "She has been so kind to me," she remarks of bossy Mrs. Fieldmouse. Bagram Ibatoulline's gouache and watercolor paintings give Thumbelina a large-eyed pathos reminiscent of silent movie heroines, but her body and face are so much less detailed than those of his charmingly nefarious antagonists that in some scenes she almost seems a cartoon character adrift in the real world. His pictures are bolder and funnier than Long's, and the brilliant purples and greens of the landscape contrast strongly with the damp grays and browns of the field mouse burrow that traps Thumbelina. One can feel the joyous relief when the swallow rescues her, flying above a bright green meadow, and over all, Alderson and Ibatoulline's recasting tells the story with higher energy and drama. "Thumbelina" has a premise that is inherently enchanting: it's the adventures of a miniature human being. The terrors of giant toads and bugs, the joys of a ride on a swallow or a float on a lily pad - all this will capture children's imaginations in these new editions, just as it has since 1836, whatever one might feel about the limitations of the heroine or the ambitions of the artists. Emily Jenkins's most recent books are "Sugar Would Not Eat It" and "Toy Dance Party."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 11, 2010]
Review by Booklist Review
\rtf1\ansi\deff0K\endash Gr. 2. Hans Christian Andersen's tale of a thumb-size girl forcibly betrothed to a series of forest creatures is strange, vaguely sinister, and perennially fascinating, and Sneed's interpretation reflects all these qualities. His text cleaves closely to the original, tracing Thumbelina's journey from the clutches of a calculating mother toad, a greedy beetle, a demanding mouse, and a mole with marriage on the mind. His dramatic watercolors don't sweep the story's cautionary aspects under the rug; the slightly distorted compositions and striking chiaroscuro effects amplify the threats Thumbelina encounters and deepen the relief when the happy ending arrives. Point out the lighthearted portrait of Andersen on the last page; children will be amused by the emphasis Sneed places on the storyteller's famously large nose. Pair this with Brian Pinkney's recent version BKL O 1 03, featuring sunnier art and an African American Thumbelina, to discuss the range of interpretations that can spring from a single evocative source. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The larger-than-life adventures (relatively speaking) of Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina unfold in Brad Sneed's illustrations. Tiny Thumbelina endures abductions by frogs, a beetle, a mouse and a mole before finding her soul mate. Sneed's animals are often grotesque (as befits their personalities) yet emotionally expressive, though the human characters come across less so. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-This greatly abridged retelling joins many versions in recent years, both single volumes and in collections of Andersen's work. It is told in simplified language and vocabulary, minimizing many of the darker elements of the tale. Unfortunately, it begins rather abruptly and some of the emotional content is lessened. Pinkney uses colored inks on clay board to illustrate the story with vibrant colors, large shapes, and sketch-type outlines. The artwork, while certainly bold and engaging, does not meld well with the delicate and fragile nature of the original story. Still, since it is so visually different from other retellings, comparison among them would be an interesting student activity. The book's format is large and would work well for group sharing.-Cris Riedel, Ellis B. Hyde Elementary School, Dansville, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Tiny Thumbelina is kidnapped from her home, is rescued by a swallow just before being forced to marry a mole, and finally reaches a kingdom of flower people like herself. Pinkney retells Andersen's classic fairy tale with less color and detail than in the original text. Thumbelina's face is indistinct in many paintings, and even the villains lack character. The resulting story has little emotional pull on the reader. From HORN BOOK Spring 2004, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The adventures of a tiny girl amid flora and fauna in an imaginary land are again presented for young readers. The text is acceptably adapted and accessible, but the illustrations, thickly textured and deeply colored, are leaden and rely on fashion rather than magic for their distinctiveness. The illustrator veers back and forth distractingly in her depiction of clothing, from the traditional 19th-century peasant dress with apron and kerchief of the field mouse to the 1920s look of the three female June bugs (cockchafers in some versions) who declare Thumbelina's utter unsuitability as a mate for the big June bug who tries to capture her. The ugly toad who first steals her from her walnut-shell bed for her own son (shown in denim overalls) wears a frumpy pink polka-dot dress of no particular vintage. The haughty mole who wants to marry the girl wears a red fez and a fur-trimmed jacket to portray his wealth. Thumbelina wears simple white dresses, symbolizing her purity, but there is a lack of the magical lightness necessary to the tale. Even the double-page spread of the wedding scene when Thumbelina, with her large, Margaret Keane-like eyes, finally finds a suitable mate of just the right height, seems heavy and contrived. While Andersen's imaginative story, first published in 1835, keeps children listening or reading, this edition adds nothing new or special to a long literary history. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
