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Summary
Summary
A classic tale of love and sacrifice, enhanced by one of the great illustrators of our time
Once there was a little mermaid who fell in love with a human boy . . .
The story may be familiar, but Lisbeth Zwerger's art makes this fairytale seem brand-new. This Jubilee edition, celebrating 200 years of Hans Christian Andersen, is superbly illustrated in Zwerger's signature style. Known for her popular and award-winning editions of classics such as The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland , Zwerger is herself the recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for lasting contributions to children's literature. The Little Mermaid is sure to win her new fans, and to delight her old ones.
The text is an all-new translation by Anthea Bell, and includes many lovely and poignant details that may be new to even those who think they know the little mermaid's story well.
Author Notes
Hans Christian Andersen, one of the best known figures in literature, is best know for combining traditional folk tales with his own great imagination to produce fairy tales known to most children today. The Danish writer was born in the slums of Odense. Although he was raised in poverty, he eventually attended Copenhagen University.
Although Andersen wrote poems, plays and books, he is best known for his Fairy Tales and Other Stories, written between 1835 and 1872. This work includes such famous tales as The Emperor's New Clothes, Little Ugly Duckling, The Tinderbox, Little Claus and Big Claus, Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Story of a Mother and The Swineherd.
Andersen's greatest work is still influential today, helping mold some of the works of writers ranging from Charles Dickens to Oscar Wilde and inspiring many of the works of Disney and other motion pictures.
Andersen, who traveled greatly during his life, died in his home in Rolighed on August 4, 1875.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2Isadora's light-filled watercolor paintings offset a less than engaging text in her retelling of Andersen's classic tale. The story of the mermaid who sacrifices her voice and suffers for her love of a human prince, while accessible to younger listeners and competent enough, lacks richness and depth. The paintings, however, express the true range of the tale, from the appealing, engaging child mermaid looking up with wonder and longing on the cover to the triumphant spirit soaring joyfully through the clouds at story's end. Isadora demonstrates her mastery of light and dark; the stormy painting of the tempest that sinks the prince's ship is followed by the sunny calm of the shore. The illustrations alone make the book a worthwhile purchase, and if the text is not as fleshed out as one might wish, it is at least a version of the story that will appeal to preschoolers.Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
No matter how often it's retold, no matter how many illustrators tackle it, Andersen's classic tale of the lovelorn mermaid never grows stale. Unlike the sanitized Disney version, the original isn't particularly cheerful: the mermaid loses not only her voice, but also her prince and her life (although she's given a reprieve in the form of a chance to earn an immortal soul). It is, however, exquisitely written--richly layered, evocative, and full of hope, pain and yearning. Hague's Rackham-esque style suits the intense emotions of the prose; his slightly muted palette seems an extension of Andersen's imagination, capturing as it does the filtered half-light of the mysterious undersea world thronged with exquisitely sinuous merfolk. At once lavishly detailed and fanciful, his illustrations distill the haunting beauty of the century-old story, a story as fresh today as the day it was penned. All ages. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
With the theme of the stark consequences and cruelties of sacrifice and love, this adaptation remains true to Andersen's original and showcases Hague's elaborate artwork, which illustrates nearly every scene. A respectable addition to collections of Andersen's work. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
From Isadora (A South African Night, p. 496, etc.), a rich retelling of a dark and complex tale, with illustrations that are surprisingly uneven. The little mermaid turns 15: ``She rose to the surface as light as a bubble. In the glow of sunset, a great ship lay anchored.'' She peers inside the porthole to view the young prince with whom she'll fall in love. The telling has a spellbinding cadence, lending itself to reading aloud. Scenes such as the storm destroying the ship, the sea witch, and the first portrait of the mermaid as a young girl are grand and accomplished; others aren't as strong. In almost every scene the little mermaid's hair and face varies to an amateurish degree; a scene of her and her grandmother demonstrates markedly different approaches to drawing faces: The little mermaid's is all but featureless, the elderly woman's is explicitly detailed. The text stands alone, but given Isadora's past accomplishments, it needn't be so. (Picture book/folklore. 6-9)
Booklist Review
Reviewed with E. T. A. Hoffman's Nutcracker0 . Gr. 3-5. Artist Zwerger expands her repertoire of beguilingly illustrated tales by two, both of which contain surprises for readers primarily familiar with popular film or stage versions. Mermaid 0 reinstates the tragic ending and spiritual-mystical components abandoned by Disney; Nutcracker,0 though condensed by adaptor Susanne Koppe, preserves the Mouse King's seven heads and devotes a good chunk of the narrative (as in Hoffman's original) to the story-within-a-story starring Princess Pirlipat. The hypnotic, even slightly chilly, sensibility that pervades Zwerger's work seems a more logical accompaniment to the poignant Mermaid 0 than to Nutcracker0 , whose spirited fantasy seems somehow dampened by the artist's penchant for quiet, dimly lit scenes and slightly arcane imagery. Zwerger first illustrated The Nutcracker and the Mouse King 0 in 1979, but has created entirely new paintings this time around, which will compete for balletomanes' attention with Sendak's lengthier, more rambunctious 1981 treatment. These renditions of cherished stories will prove useful in the coming months, as the 200th anniversary of Andersen's birth approaches and as ballet companies commence their annual march to the Kingdom of Sweets. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2004 Booklist
