Fairy Tales

Hans Christian Andersen wrote his tales for print rather than gathering them from oral tradition, and that authorship gives the stories a melancholy streak the folk collections rarely carry. This English edition brings together the Danish writer's best-known pieces alongside others that are harder to find in single-author volumes. The stories run short, the prose is plain enough for a confident young reader, and the emotional range is wider than the screen versions suggest, taking in loneliness and longing as readily as wonder. What you'll find in these pages: • Stories such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen and The Princess and the Pea • An English text suited to independent readers and to reading aloud • Tales composed by a single author rather than assembled from many sources • Ideas about difference, kindness and belonging handled without preaching Recommended for children moving on to longer stories, teachers and adults revisiting the originals, available at Boipoka.