I'm a medievalist, a heavy metal fan, an opera buff and a cat lover without a cat. I also happen to adore Hans Christian Andersen and his fairy tales — a love that matured since early childhood. I’m especially partial to 'Thumbelina' (in Danish 'Tommelise', my namesake in a way), and collect illustrated editions of this fascinating, sad and often misunderstood work. This blog is about my collection, Andersen and 'Thumbelina'.

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If you are interested in classical music and read in Russian, I also have a blog about opera and musical drama.



Experts and illustrations from the reviewed books are presented under the Fair Use doctrine, namely for comment and criticism. If you posess the copyright to an edition and would not like this material to be present in my blog, please let me know.

New York, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2005

Title: Thumbelina

Language: English

Translation by (if any): not credited (the text is primarily Lauren Mills’s; it is likely that she worked with the original)

Adaptation by (if any): Lauren Mills

Illustrated by: Lauren Mills

Andersen credited as the author on the title page: yes

Place of issue: New York, Boston

Publishing house: Little, Brown and Company

Year of issue: 2005

Annotation: Beautiful and heartfelt illustrations, albeit feeling a bit secondhand compared to Mills’s other works, are compromised by a retelling that tries too hard to strip Andersen’s text of its melancholy. Progressive ideas, which Mills pushes into the narrative, often feel superfluous and didactic, although they will undoubtedly appeal to many parents and some children.

San Anselmo, CA: Treasure Bay, 2007

It feels good to start with editions you love, illustrations you adore and adapted versions that are worth analyzing. It is scary to remember what abominations I have back home. Which is also interesting in a way, but... ok, let's procede with this masterpiece of a picture book.

Title: Thumbelina

Language: English

Translation by (if any): not credited (Sindy McKay?)

Adaptation by (if any): Sindy McKay

Illustrated by: Quentin Gréban

Andersen credited as the author on the title page: yes

Place of issue: San Anselmo, CA, USA

Publishing house: Treasure Bay

Year of issue: 2007

Notes: after a French edition (Mijade Publications, 2007)

Annotation: This is probably a staple of how an Andersen adaptation for small children should be made, if it has to be made at all. Some of the greatest illustrations Thumbelina ever got work perfectly with simple and short, but very well-made retelling that, given the book’s aim at pre-readers, stays remarkably true to the Andersenian spirit.

Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 2004

Ok - let's go!

Title: Thumbelina. Pulgarcita

Language: English-Spanish bilingual book

Translation by (if any): not credited

Adaptation by (if any): Caterina Valrui (she is the author of the adaptation in Spanish; it is not clear who wrote the English text)

Illustrated by: Max

Andersen credited as the author on the front cover: no

Place of issue: San Francisco, CA

Publishing house: Chronicle Books

Year of issue: 2004

Notes: originally published in Catalan in 1998, also with Max’s illustrations

Annotation: A budget paperback with a quite good retelling is graced by Max’s illustrations – stylish, energetic and full of heart. Thanks to their bright and limited array of colours, they don’t suffer too much from the only more than mediocre printing quality.

How my collection started: a very personal story

Like many people, I grew up with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. Only now though, after 20 years of being an Andersen enthusiast and 10 years of professionally studying literature, I can fully appreciate how lucky I was with those two plain paperbacks – Andersen’s selected fairy tales, volumes 1 and 2. One was red and one was green, cheap paper smelled with dust and glue, and both things got read into tatters as quickly as only The Lord of the Rings would afterwards. The thing is, the Russian texts were really, really good. Now, having read the originals, I am able to applaud the translators, but when a child, the spell simply worked on me. Most children’s editions have colourful illustrations but only simplified retellings of what Andersen had written: they are stripped of the magic of the words.