Sunday, October 30, 2016

Beautifully Packaged Fairy Tale: The Fir Tree

by Hans Christian Andersen
illustrated by Sanna Annukka

This is a brilliantly illustrated, beautifully bound, new hardcover version of one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. 

Right on the cover you can see how the illustrator incorporates multidimensional images with simple geometric shapes. Notice the birds nestled in the branches of the tree.  This is a slightly modified version of what I think is an even better image on the second spread of the book, where the tree and birds are all different shades of green.

The colors on each page reflect the tale, oceanic blues for the sailing vessels, muted blacks and blues for the dark of night, bright reds and oranges for the bonfire.

I think this book would be a perfect gift for the homeschooling mom in your life and perhaps for children as well. It's not a fairy tale with a happy ending, but rather a moral tale of those who are destined to travel through life forever dissatisfied and searching for something new and different. Take a minute to read the tale before gifting the book. Originally I thought I might give it to one of my godchildren for Christmas, but have decided it's a little too depressing for the littlest ones. Either of their moms, however, would love it.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. The opinions above are my own. The links in this post are not affiliate links.