His Fairytale Life: A Book About Hans Christian Andersen

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.)