Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 01/27/2025 Yolen (the How Do Dinosaurs? series) traces via a single, lilting sentence the life of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), whose original stories are now considered cultural touchstones. Though he’s raised in part by a mother who recalls "every fairy tale" she’s been told, circumstances delay Andersen’s formal education until he’s a lanky adolescent, sitting among elementary-school pupils, "knees up to his nose/ as he crouched over his small desk." Painful moments are treated with gentle words that describe the figure as "a young man/ who asked people in the streets/ to listen to his poems" and gave away stories "when no one/ wanted to read about/ an Ugly Duckling." Pale, romantic watercolor, graphite, and ink spreads by Boynton-Hughes (Heart String) set the events in atmospheric interiors and streets, and represent Andersen’s imaginative creations as intricate, tapestry-like waves of fantasy that spread beyond him. His fame grows (he becomes "a man whose stories/ were on every tongue/ in every tongue,/ in places he had never traveled"), but he dies "still awkward, almost mad,/ certainly lonely." Hinting lightly at the darker details of Andersen’s personal life, this haunting prose poem casts the figure’s story as its own fairy tale. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4-8. Author’s agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown Ltd. Illustrator’s agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Apr.) - Copyright 2025

Booklist - 02/01/2025 *Starred Review* The son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman, Hans Christian Andersen grew up in poverty. Though illiterate, his mother, a great storyteller of traditional fairy tales, was an inspiration to him. In his teens, Andersen moved to Copenhagen, where he learned to read in a class for preschoolers. He tried to make a living as a singer and a playwright before writing the stories, sometimes based upon traditional tales, that brought him fame, fortune, and a large, appreciative audience. In her new book, Yolen, who also wrote The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen (2004), describes Andersen as longing for love but often lonely, though after his death, he was “mourned by all the world.” In this picture-book biography, the art often captures the grace and emotional resonance of traditional fairy tale illustrations. Working with graphite, ink, and watercolor, Boynton-Hughes makes good use of soft blues, grays, and greens, balanced with subdued shades of tawny colors and creamy whites. Sometimes intense but often idyllic, the scenes of Andersen living his secluded life and his stories’ heroes leading their adventurous ones are similar in their sense of drama and suffering. This beautiful picture book serves as a poetic tribute from one imaginative writer to another. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.