With over one hundred children's books to his credit - including Judith Viorst's moving The Tenth Good Thing About Barney - Danish-born illustrator Erik Blegvad turned his attention to one of the formative influences of his own childhood in 1994, producing this lovely collection of fairy-tales from Hans Christian Andersen. With faithful translations (done by Blegvad himself) that read smoothly, and charming ink and watercolor illustrations inspired by the original artwork of Vilhelm Pedersen and Lorenz Frølich, Twelve Tales is an Andersen anthology to cherish!

Here the reader will encounter many well-known favorites, from The Steadfast Tin Soldier, in which a one-legged tin soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina, to The Emperor's New Clothes, which tells of a vain (and very foolish) emperor who is conned by two pretend-weavers. Here too are some less frequently anthologized tales, from The Pixie at the Grocer's, in which a pixie learns the value of poetry, to Twelve by Coach, in which the twelve months of the year arrive in the city.

Andersen's tendency toward melancholy is well represented by selections such as The Fir Tree, that tale of an arboreal life wasted, as well as The Little Match Girl, in which a poor young match seller freezes to death on New Year's Eve night. His penchant for making inanimate toys into protagonists can be seen in The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, the tale of two china figurines in love, and The Sweethearts, sometimes also translated as The Top and the Ball. Other selections include: The Princess and the Pea, The Tinderbox, What Father Does Is Always Right, and The Swineherd. ( )