An Illustrated Treasury of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales: The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Princess and the Pea and many more classic stories (Classic European Fairytales)

Amazing, text is great, but it’s classic. Illustrations are top! Amazing, haven’t seen any better edition. Highly recommended. Got one for my child, and few more for gifts later!

I was pleasantly surprised at how well made this book is. It's bound well, with a sturdy thick cover that's linen wrapped. The illustrations are classic and beautiful. Every page has an illustration. Some are full page and some are smaller illustrations. The stories are beautiful. My children have loved reading these together.

This is a beautiful book and the illustrations are wonderful! I am a book lover and though I no longer have small children, I couldn't resist. You will love this collection!

My 8 year old Frozen loving girl was thrilled to get this as a gift. I was looking around for a collection with Snow Queen or a stand alone children’s version of the story and couldn’t get a good feeling if this collection had it until it arrived. Happy to share a table of contents photo for reference for others. We look forward to reading through this book with its beautiful illustrations.

Such a beautiful way to introduce these classic tales to my son. The illustrations are fantastic.

This is a pretty good book, espsecially for the price. These are the ORIGINAL tales by Hans Christian Andersen--and they are all cute and nice.Art work: very beautiful. It's watercolor and just breath taking. There's this one picture of the little mermaid where the prince is telling her that he is going to be married to another maiden on the morrow and her expression of pain and the knowledge that she is going to die is just so vivid. You can FEEL the emotion. Anyway, very beautiful artwork. And for those wondering if the mermaids show off their boobs they don't. It's kid friendly (in that aspect). Anyway, all the stories have beautiful artwork but I'd say my favorites are from Thumbelina and the Little Mermaid.So I'll just review each individual story here.Thumbelina: It's a very cute story. Not a lot of depth but none the less cute and charming. Probably the happiest of the bunch to be honest. It also has a nice message of that everyone has a place where they belong. Anyway I thought it was cute and had a good message.Princess and the Pea: I've always hated this tale. The "real" princess is real because she has sensitive skin. So we're going to reduce girls worth on the sensitivity of their skin?? Not on how kind they are, not on how brave they are, not on how patient they are, but on the sensitivities of their skin...newsflash: you can be an awful person and have sensitive skin. It's just a stupid story.Snow Queen: This story is a nice story of friendship and loyalty. It is pretty awesome. Also it's broken up into 7 stories (sorta like chapters) this may bother some people but I believe that's how he wrote the story...anyway it doesn't bother me as it's pretty easy to connect the dots. It's a beautiful story and very inspirational!The Brave Tin Soldier: Well...this one would be better...if he didn't DIE in the end. I have another revised version of this story where instead of falling into the fire he falls out of the window and the paper doll falls out too and they live happily ever after. In this version they both burn in the flames together...how romantic..NOTThe emperor's new suit: this one has a very good message on how honesty prevails. this is a very good story into today's world. It also is humerous because of the mess the king gets himself into. But I also have a revised version of this story, where the honest boy gets rewarded and becomes the kings advisor...I always thought that was a nice touch and highlighted the message even more. But alas this is still a good retelling.The Little Match Girl: Gosh this story is so sad :'( Probably the saddest out of all them. But it has a very good message about not being selfish, and how that can affect others. It's a beautiful story and is very bittersweet.The Little Mermaid: this puts Disney's little mermaid to shame. to be honest, I always HATED Ariel. I mean she's a spoiled selfish brat. But this little mermaid is exactly opposiote. She is selfless. Also, her foolish decision to trust the sea witch has REAL consequences that she has to deal with. Overall it is a very good story but is also sort of sad. Warning: do not read to less than 8 years old. Ariel's (she isn't given a name so I'll call her Ariel) tongue is cut out and she eventually dies in the end.The Christmas Tree: This story made me blush. It's about a tree that's always dreaming of essentially moving out and never appreciates his youth. Basically story of my life. Anyway it's a great story that teaches about perspective and being grateful for what you have.Overall these stories are pretty great and I'd recommend them to 8 and up. I'd say it's pretty clean, save for what I said about the little mermaid. But in all honesty, I can't imagine this book holding the attention of 5 year old. It's definitely made for older kids.Edit: so I just went babysitting, and I brought this book. And I realized like all of the stories (save tbumbelina) are bittersweet at best and downright sad at worst. So...unless you know the parents and kid well I would not just read it to any little kid. Some parents may not appreciate that. Also you don't know how the kid will react. But for close family friends and your own children enjoy 😊😊😊

All illustrated characters are reasonably modest, including the mermaids. Plus, all the illustrations are lovely.

Our Granddaughter wanted fairy tales for Christmas, and she loved this! We are trying to get her good books to create a lifelong library, and this is a great addition to her collection.