The Nightingale

Author: Hans Christian Andersen
Translated by: Eva Le Gallienne
Illustrated by: Nancy Ekholm Burkert
Publisher: Harper & Row
ISBN: 9780060237813

I was drawn to The Nightingale because it is not a story that I remember from my childhood. Hans Christian Andersen has created many of my favorite fairy tales, so I knew this would be an enjoyable story as well.

When I first opened the book I was somewhat disappointed by the small, beige pictures on the page. The page was filled with mostly text. This conflicted with my idea of fairy tales, which are supposed to be magical stories that use the creativity of the imagination. Since fairy tales are created in a way that I only young children would believe, I didn't see how this book would grasp the attention of a young child.

After turning the page, my entire image of the book changed. I noticed that after each page of text, was a beautiful two-page spread of what had been described in the page or pages or text before it. I thought that this was an incredible way to illustrate a fairy tale. It gives the reader time to put the images together in their head and imagine what it would look like while reading the text and then shows the illustrators interpretation in a big, beautiful picture on the next page. However, I still feel as though it would be a better reader for older children in first and second grade rather than in Pre-K and Kindergarten. Very young children are excited to see pictures and are bored by too much text. As they get older their patience grows somewhat, and they will understand the illustrator's craft better.

The vocabulary used in this book also lends itself to older readers. While still considered a fairy tale, I feel as though it is a book that somewhat older children will enjoy. The story is of an emperor who had a huge palace with a wonderful garden. People came from all over the world to visit this garden and everyone spoke of a nightingale who sang beautifully from a tree. The emperor himself, as well as his courtiers had never heard this nightingale before, and the emperor wanted it brought to the palace. Once he heard it, he decided to keep it in the palace for all to hear. News of the emperors nightingale quickly spread and the emperor of Japan sent the emperor of china a mechanical nightingale made of jewels, that imitated the song of the real, dull, grey nightingale. Because the mechanical bird was magnificent and predictable the emperor soon preferred it over the real nightingale and banished her from his empire. The mechanical bird, after being played so often broke down and could only be used once a year. Soon, the emperor grew ill and was deemed dead by his servants who now moved on to worship the new emperor. Death came to weigh in on his heart and the emperor begged for the nightingale to sing so he would have to hear of all the bad deeds he had done in his lifetime. However, because it was mechanical it could not sing without the emperor winding it. Soon, the real life nightingale appeared and saved the emperor from death. He now appreciated her and agreed to let her fly free and come back to sing to him. The lesson of the story, that beauty lies within, will always be something that is important to remember no matter how times change. Children will always be able to connect this story to their lives, and the world around them.

In the back of the book, I saw that the translator, Eva Le Gallienne, had a personal connection to Hans Christian Andersen. Her father was a well known author and her mother had actually sat on the lap of Hans Christian Andersen as a child, while he told a story at her school. I definitely think that this connection came into play while she translated this book. Having a father as an author and a mother who can describe the way Hans Christian Andersen told stories would assist her in feeling the meaning of the story and creating her own interpretation.