First Friday Tasha Tudor Book Review~Fairy Tales From Hans Christian Andersen

Do you like a good fairy tale? I do, so this month's First Friday Tasha Tudor Book Review is about  a book of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen that was illustrated by Tasha in 1945.

Just what is a fairy tale? it's a simple children's story about magical creatures such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants and mermaids.  Often they begin with "Once upon a time", "A long, long time ago" and may end with "They lived happily ever after".

This sweet book was written in 1945 and first published by Henry Z. Walck, New York. I am lucky to have a beautiful first edition that I cherish. The book is 273 pages long and includes 10 color illustrations and 31 black and white illustrations.  The one above is from The Wild Swans and is so pretty.

I have often seen this illustration but I didn't know it was from this book until I started studying the book a bit more. It's from The Fir Tree. Don't you love the way Tasha draws little children?

This one is from Thumbelina, which has always been a favorite of mine. Hang on tight Thumbelina!

I borrowed this picture from an eBay seller. It is similar to my book. It is still for sale by books4u29 if you are interested. This one doesn't come up for sale too often.

I wanted to give just a little information about the author of these stories, Mr Hans Christian Andersen.

He was a Danish author and poet, born in 1805 and died in 1875. He was best known for his fairy tales.

When I was little, I loved this movie with Danny Kaye acting as Hans Christian Andersen. The movie states, " this is not the story of his life, but a fairy tale about the great spinner of fairy tales".