Review by Booklist Review
The son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman, Hans Christian Andersen grew up in poverty. Though illiterate, his mother, a great storyteller of traditional fairy tales, was an inspiration to him. In his teens, Andersen moved to Copenhagen, where he learned to read in a class for preschoolers. He tried to make a living as a singer and a playwright before writing the stories, sometimes based upon traditional tales, that brought him fame, fortune, and a large, appreciative audience. In her new book, Yolen, who also wrote The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen (2004), describes Andersen as longing for love but often lonely, though after his death, he was "mourned by all the world." In this picture-book biography, the art often captures the grace and emotional resonance of traditional fairy tale illustrations. Working with graphite, ink, and watercolor, Boynton-Hughes makes good use of soft blues, grays, and greens, balanced with subdued shades of tawny colors and creamy whites. Sometimes intense but often idyllic, the scenes of Andersen living his secluded life and his stories' heroes leading their adventurous ones are similar in their sense of drama and suffering. This beautiful picture book serves as a poetic tribute from one imaginative writer to another.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Yolen (the How Do Dinosaurs? series) traces via a single, lilting sentence the life of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805--1875), whose original stories are now considered cultural touchstones. Though he's raised in part by a mother who recalls "every fairy tale" she's been told, circumstances delay Andersen's formal education until he's a lanky adolescent, sitting among elementary-school pupils, "knees up to his nose/ as he crouched over his small desk." Painful moments are treated with gentle words that describe the figure as "a young man/ who asked people in the streets/ to listen to his poems" and gave away stories "when no one/ wanted to read about/ an Ugly Duckling." Pale, romantic watercolor, graphite, and ink spreads by Boynton-Hughes (Heart String) set the events in atmospheric interiors and streets, and represent Andersen's imaginative creations as intricate, tapestry-like waves of fantasy that spread beyond him. His fame grows (he becomes "a man whose stories/ were on every tongue/ in every tongue,/ in places he had never traveled"), but he dies "still awkward, almost mad,/ certainly lonely." Hinting lightly at the darker details of Andersen's personal life, this haunting prose poem casts the figure's story as its own fairy tale. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4--8. Author's agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown Ltd. Illustrator's agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Apr.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
Winding through thirty-two pages of enchanting illustrations, one long sentence with a "once upon a time" feel deftly takes readers through the life story of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). Each word must earn its place to make this construction work: "He was a boy who lived with a mother who could not read, but remembered every fairy tale she'd been told..." The text juxtaposes the incongruences of Andersen's life: someone who cannot write as a child but wants to be a poet; later, a beloved author who is personally lonely. The soft watercolor, graphite, and pen-and-ink illustrations capitalize on these contrasts by bringing out details that invoke emotional response -- a lanky teenage Andersen crouching at a child-size desk among very young children while learning to read is comical, heartrending, and hopeful all at once. The illustrations are especially effective when they incorporate Andersen's own fairy tales, whether through small visual references or more fully realized scenes springing from his work or daydreams. For those just starting to learn about Andersen's stories and life, the details included are engaging, and the text leaves enough that is open-ended to encourage further exploration. Yolen's long poetic sentence ultimately ends in tribute: "Hans Christian Andersen -- your own story more like a fairy tale than a life." Back matter includes an extended biographical note and suggested additional reading. Julie RoachMay/June 2025 p.122 (c) Copyright 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
One luminary of children's literature pens a picture-book biography about another. Once called "the Hans Christian Andersen of American children's literature" byNewsweek magazine, Yolen honors that great Danish author of literary fairy tales. Contemporary readers may know only a handful of Andersen's hundreds of stories--those about "an Ugly Duckling, the Snow Queen, a mermaid who loved a prince, a princess who could feel a pea under twenty mattresses"--but Yolen pays tribute to his legacy, which has unquestionably influenced her own career. As she references those enduring tales in the context of his greater body of work, Yolen sensitively recounts how Andersen's story--"more like a fairy tale than a life"--was marked by hardship, ambition, creativity, and longing. The beauty of her writing astounds, perhaps especially at the breathtaking line that he "lived the single long sentence of his life till its end," the double meaning of the wordsentence searing in its poignancy. Throughout, Boynton-Hughes' illustrations rise to meet Yolen's achievement, with myriad references to Andersen's stories embedded like easter eggs for readers to find in her detailed but never cluttered spreads. She especially excels at delineating real and imaginary vistas as she depicts Andersen's life, his stories, and his memories and imaginings through layered, inviting compositions. A treasure. (more about Andersen, further reading)(Picture-book biography. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
