Thumbelina, illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale of a tiny girl - no bigger than a thumb - is considerably abridged in this adaptation by Brian Pinkney - winner of the Coretta Scott King Medal for In the Time of the Drums, and two-time recipient of a Caldecott Honor. In this retelling, the characters are of African, rather than European extraction, although no culturally specific details are given to anchor the story to a particular place. Like the original, this is a tale set in "fairy-land," and the storyteller (and reader) is free to imagine them as she wishes.

Unfortunately, although Pinkney's artwork is lovely, the narrative has been so watered down that the result is a bland, uninteresting copy of the original. In this version, the conversation in which Mole and Mouse discuss the chirping of the birds, their foolish devotion to song, has been omitted, condensed to Mole's single comment: "What a misfortune to be born a bird!" Whereas Mouse threatens to bite Thumbelina with her "sharp teeth" in the original, when informed of the tiny girl's reluctance to marry Mole, her response in Pinkney's adaptation is a mild "Come, come, you are lucky to have him."

The cumulative effect of these and other changes, is a story in which all the bite, all the danger, and all the grotesquery that gave the original such power, has been suppressed. Even Pinkney's lovely artwork, with its beautifully vivid palette, cannot save such a text! ( )

A woman wished for a child, and was blessed with a daughter who bloomed from inside a flower, no bigger than her thumb. Eventually, Thumbelina is stolen from her bed and struggles with finding herself, dodging two forced marriages, and ending up with her perfect mate, the King of the Flowers.

I was not particularly impressed with this retelling of Thumbelina; all I could think about at the end of the story, was how she never returned to her mother, who had wished for a child.

I would have my class think about the obstacles they would face if they were Thumbelina's size in our classroom: how would they get off their desk? What about going to lunch, recess, etc.?

Great tale but this book had two mistakes that took away from the storyline. ( )