Like other books in this series, it is a fun little introduction to inspiring people. Definitely a great way to introduce kids to biographies and a nice read for adults too. I would recommend all the books in this series.

5★
“When people read Hans’s stories, they felt like they were hearing them out loud round the fireplace. They were new and familiar, funny and sad, and were about things both ordinary and fantastic.”

Even if, somehow, you’ve never heard his name, chances are you’re familiar with some of his stories, which have been translated into 125 languages and performed onstage and in films. Most of us have heard someone referred to as The Ugly Duckling of the group. I'd like to think those kids grew up to be swans.

Hans was born in Denmark in 1805 to an extremely poor family who had one treasure – a book of stories. The illustrator has shown a cover of something that looks like The Arabian Nights, which would have had plenty of tales to inspire a young fellow.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration from the book with this caption:
“Flying carpets, Arabian princesses, genies coming out of lamps… Every night, Hans would listen to his father’s readings, and once he fell asleep, all he dreamt of was being the hero of these wonderful fairytales.”

Hans started school, but when his father died, he was sent to be a weaver’s apprentice. Note all of the other children working.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration from the book with this caption:
“It was not the exciting life he had imagined.”

He loved all the street puppets, and we are told in the notes following the story that his mother worked in a theatre, so he acted out what he saw and performed for his mother, his audience of one.

Later, he moved to Copenhagen to try to break into theatre in any way he could.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration from the book with this caption:
“Hans tried everything: acting, singing, dancing…but all he got was a role as a troll.”

While he was waiting for his talent to be discovered, he wrote stories. His family had encouraged his imagination, and it paid off!

My Goodreads review includes an illustration from the book with this caption:
“One day, he showed one of his stories to the theater director. It was full of misspellings, but he found it just delightful.”

Time to go back to school, even if he was the oldest student in the class. He learned his lessons well and had begun to make a living as a writer when he had his heart broken.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration from the book with this caption:
“Riborg was getting married to another man.”

Rather than bottle up his feelings, Hans shared them in the wonderful stories for which he is so well known - and aren't we glad he did? (Not that I wanted him to have his heart broken.)

My Goodreads review includes an illustration from the book with this caption:
“There were stories of mermaids falling in love with princes, and ducklings dreaming of becoming swans.”

His stories became popular all over Europe and later, the world.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration from the book with this caption:
“But Hans’s highest honor was that every second of April—the day of his birthday—kids all over the world now celebrate Children’s Book Day.”

I didn’t know this, and it is actually International Children’s Book Day. (Of course I had to look it up!) For me, his name is enough to conjure up the magic of fairytales, and I can’t help hearing some of the music in my head from the little songs that have been made up about them.

The opening quotation and the information about him visiting the theatre where his mother worked come from the more extensive details at the end of the book. As always in these books, there are four photographs included of the real man.

This is a delightful addition to this informative, entertaining series, and I especially like the illustrations by Maxine Lee-Mackie. She's captured the wistful, hopeful nature of Hans as described in the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for the copy for review from which I’ve share the illustrations and quotations.

Free ARC from NetGalley.

This is a book in the Little People, Big Dreams series. In this book we meet a famous man that children might have heard of even before opening this book. One of the guys behind our fairy tales. The Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

As always, a beautiful, fun and easy reads. I have read every single book in this long long series, and I love them all. It was fun to go to a country so close to home in this one.

I hope children will find these books as good as I do!

#HansChristianAndersen #NetGalley

I love this series! It shows how great people from different times and places became great, all starting out as a child with a dream. In the case of Hans Christian Andersen, that dream was to perform on stage. Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for the us), he got typecast as trolls and other monstery characters, so he decided to try his hand at writing, becoming one of the world's most beloved storytellers. The illustrations are quirky and fun, and the text is informative without being overwhelming. A biographical timeline follows the story, highlighting important events in Andersen's life. Definitely recommended!

#HansChristianAndersen #NetGalley

I absolutely love the Little People, Big Dreams Books and this is one of my favourites. First, I absolutley love that cover. Look closely at the book that Hans is holding, amazing. I think everyone has heard of Hans Christian Andersen, but I had no idea of what his life had been like. There is one line in the book that I loved, They had one precious jewel that they kept carefully in the cupboard: A Book For this bookworm, that broke my heart. This family was not well off, but a they considered a book of fairytales that Hans' dad read to him nightly, a precious jewel. Is it no wonder that he made up stories of his own and wrote them down. Hans had a tough life, quitting school quite young to work when his father died. He had problems writing his stories with terrible spelling but he overcame it, what a great message for our kids today. This is a very inspirational story and one that had me off trying to find out more about the amazing author. As always, there is a timeline at the back of the book with some more information that can be shared with older readers. As an aside, some of his most famous stories include: The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Red Shoes, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl, and Thumbelina. How many of these have you read?

I loved this story of Hans Christian Anderson. I absolutely love fairy tales and knew he was the creator, but I had never learned much about him. As always, the 'little people, big dreams' knocked this book out of the park. I enjoyed learning more about Hans and how his stories were created.

I love this series, but this particular book was rather short. Still, a great biography of Hans Christian Andersen for the little ones.

Thanks to Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Francis Lincoln Children’s Books for their approval of my request to read and review this ebook.
The period-piece inspired illustrations really added to this beautiful version of Hans Christian Anderson’s life. Every Upper Elementary classroom should have a copy!

I adore every single 'Little People, Big Dreams' book that I read. However, Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara outdid herself in writing this one about the insanely talented Hans Christian Andersen. The magic that HCA brought to his classic and timeless stories, Vegara brings to her book and are made even more enchanting by illustrator, Maxine Lee-Mackie.

The final page of the story genuinely made me tear up:

"By never hiding his feelings and letting his imagination fly, little Hans got what he had longed for: being loved. Not just by one single person, but by entire generations of children who know there is a swan inside each of us."

I highly recommend this book to young and old, and am so grateful to NetGalley & Quarto Publishing Group / Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the opportunity to read and review it. (I preordered a hardcover copy the second I finished reading the galley.)

I really like this series of short picture book biographies, and enjoyed learning more about Hans Christian Andersen's life story. The illustrations are somewhat weird, particularly in their depictions of people, but the book is sweet and informative, and I appreciated the emphasis on Andersen's emotional life and ability to transform his difficult feelings into memorable, imaginative stories that people of different cultures have loved for generations.

This is an ode to the power of storytelling.

Young Hans Christian Andersen was enthralled as his father read 1.001 Nights. Although he was unable to complete his schooling as a child, he was always drawn to stories: puppeteers in the streets and those enacted in theaters. He returned to school as an adult so that he could write down the stories that live inside of him.

Those stories have enriched the cultural landscape not just of his native Denmark, but around the world.

My favourite fairy tale is The princess and the pea… written by Hans Christian Andersen! I was pretty excited to get my hands on this short biography. And I enjoyed it! It was great to read about his childhood and what brought him to write! The illustrations by Maxine Lee-Mackie are fantastically colourful!

This book is part of the Little People, Big Dreams collection. It’s really great to introduce young ones (and less young ones) to authors, artists, scientists…

We are big fans of the "Little People Big Dreams" books. My daughter loves hearing the stories of real people and how they follow their dreams. I didn't know much about Hans Christian Andersen and I enjoyed learning about his life as well. This is a great addition to this series and would be wonderful for a classroom or library. If your child loves this series as much as we do, I'd definitely give it a read!

The publisher made a copy of this book available via Netgalley. This is my honest review.

'Hans Christian Andersen' by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara with illustrations by Maxine Lee-Mackie is book 59 in the Little People, BIG DREAMS series.

Hans Christian Andersen was born poor in Denmark, but his family had one special possession: a book. He went to school to become a weaver, but his heart was elsewhere. He tried to get in to theater and when he wrote a story for his theater company. That started his path to becoming a beloved writer.

I loved the stories of Hans Christian Andersen as a child and I remember having a biography that I read numerous times. This is a pretty good adaptation of his life and includes some great colorful illustrations.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Prior to reading this book, I do not think I ever knew anything about Hans Christian Andersen. I enjoyed reading it and it made me ant to learn more about him. I wish it had more specific details about his life, but overall it was a good book.

Such an interesting book about Hans Christian Andersen. We all know his stories but I know I didn’t know about the man. My son loves these books and finding out about where these famous ppl came from and their life. These are great reads for younger kids. Lots of information without being boring.

It's time again for another addition to the Little People, BIG DREAMS series.

I absolutely adore this series. These bite sized books give you enough non-fiction fodder to teach children (and adults!) all about famous people. This time around, Hans Christian Andersen.

So, I know a wee bit about this guy (famous fairy tale author), but I didn't know much! I was thoroughly looking forward to learn a little bit more about him without having to do some crazy research. Why not use an illustrated children's series to learn some more? It's a great resource and medium to learn from!

This book does give you a good background on Hans. The man is from Denmark and he had an interesting career path before he wrote his own stories. I wish there was a little more meat to the story though. It only gave two pieces of information to go off of... It was quite short and stale, compared to the other books in this series.

I think reading the little biographies through this medium is excellent! Honestly, I love getting to learn more from these books. When I was a kid, I would have eaten these books up (not literally... that sounds like a book Hans might write, eek).

My biggest comment for this one: The pictures are WEIRD. Normally, the illustrations vary from book to book. Sometimes they are beautiful, sometimes they aren't the best, but this one was down right weird. I know this guy was a bit of an odd ball (look at the stories he wrote) but... it kind of sat weird with me. This is definitely someone's style and vibe, but not mine!

Two out of five stars. This book didn't give as much as the rest of this series did. It kind of let me down! I want more content. This felt watered down and lacked a lot of content.

Thank you to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group and Frances Lincoln Children's Books for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

This book is another winner from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy best-selling Little People, BIG DREAMS series. Hans Christian Anderson is highlighted. He is a man otherwise known as the father of fairy tales.

Little Hans was born in Denmark into a very poor family that could hardly keep a roof over their head. "They had one precious jewel that they kept carefully in the cupboard: a book". His father nightly read stories from that book to him and Hans fell asleep feeling like a superhero in those beloved stories. His desire was to become an artist but his hopes were dashed because he never got a prominent role to play, he always was cast as the troll. This disappointed him terribly.

While he was locked in his room waiting for another role to appear he spent his spare time writing. He showed one of his stories to the theater director, and although it was full of misspellings, the man found them enchanting. Hans jumped at a chance to go back to school and learn proper Danish which he needed to carry on with his writing.

He progressed on to write much loved poems, travelogues and stories that were loved by both young children and adults all over Europe. All his books were kept as treasures and read over and over again by the whole family. His stories were expanded into plays, ballets, and movies. Han's received a most high honour. On the second of April every year - the day of his birthday- kids all over the world now celebrate Children's Book Day. Hans now was loved worldwide.

The illustrations are fantastic and quirky which I love. The book features extra facts at the back including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the writer's life. I love this book and the entire series. I highly, highly recommend it.

Can't help but like this series. I've read about HCA in comic version, but rereading this in a kid friendly format was an adventure by itself. Hans had a hard life, being poor and not being able to read or write correctly until adulthood. But he never stopped doing what he likes, writing stories for both children and adults to read.

Until now, we all knows his stories, sometimes sad ones that brought us tears. Now I know why his stories are so sad. Please purchase one for you or your loved ones.

This is a great children’s book - introducing us to the life of Hans Christian Andersen. I loved the author incorporated the fact that Hans was an adult student, learning to write ( or at least improve his writing) because his family couldn’t afford to send him to school.

I just think the ending was a bit rushed - another page or two would have been perfect!