Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales retold by Naomi Lewis is a collection of twelve fairytales which include The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Ugly Duckling and The Snow Queen.
The Princess and the Pea is a story about a prince who wants to marry a real princess but cannot find a suitable princess. One day a real princess who is caught in a storm seeks shelter in the palace of an old King and Queen. However, the old King and Queen want to find out whether she is a real princess, and they test her sensitivity. The old Queen places a small pea on the mattress the princess is to sleep on that night, and piles up twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdowns over it.
Thumbelina is a story about a tiny little girl who is born inside a tulip. Thumbelina refuses to marry incompatible men for the sake of convenience and for mercenary motives, even though she is under pressure. One night, as Thumbelina is fast asleep on her beautiful walnut-shell bed, a toad enters her room and takes her away with the intention of marrying Thumbelina off to her son. But Thumbelina feels repulsed by the toad and does not want to marry him. Fortunately for Thumbelina, the little fishes living in the stream nearby come to her rescue and help her to escape to another country where the toad cannot follow.
Thumbelina is then carried off by a beetle that eventually abandons her, and she lives by herself in a forest where she has a hard life. While wondering in the forest one day, Thumbelina meets a kind field-mouse who gives her shelter during the winter. However, the field-mouse wants Thumbelina to marry her wealthy neighbour who is a mole. But Thumbelina does not want to marry the mole because she does not love him. Fortunately for Thumbelina, a swallow whose life she saved helps her to escape from the mole. Finally, Thumbelina finds a husband who is compatible and who truly loves her.
The Snow Queen is a story in seven parts about two little children named Kay and Gerda who live in Denmark. Kay is affected by the splinters from the devil’s looking glass which pierce his heart and eye, and he goes away with the evil Snow Queen. Kay and Gerda are playmates and they have a favourite song, “In the vale the rose grows wild / Children play all the day - / One of them is the Christ-child”. Gerda travels alone to find Kay and overcomes many obstacles, and rescues him from the Snow Queen. And at the end of the story, the children understand the meaning of their favourite song.
