From: Susan Daugherty <susaninaruba>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:10:31 -0700 (PDT)

Recently at the International School of Aruba, I offered an after lunch read-aloud time, fashioned after WHA radio's Chapter-a-Day. I attracted 3 third-grade girls as steady listeners. After they heard a novel, they wouldn't let me quit, so I decided to read them as many H.C. Andersen stories as I could fit in before the end of the school year.
   
  They thought they knew some of the stories, from books or movies, but were mesmerized by the power of Andersen's original words (albeit translated into English--I found the best versions I could in that library), and were able to compare versions with the accuracy of young minds. You could hear the proverbial pin drop as I read The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Little Claus and Big Claus, The Darning Needle, and many others.
   
  I know I am very old-fashioned, but I would like to ask all publishers out there to leave Andersen alone! What follows will be heresy to many, so fans of Jerry Pinkney, please stop reading. His version of The Ugly Duckling, while nicely illustrated, was just a pleasant story with the oomph removed. That was a very bad decision on someone's part. Reread that story in the original and compare. You will see what I mean. A great writer uses the smallest details to make his or her version so special that it should never be tampered with.
   
  Susan Daugherty
  Librarian
   
   

                 
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Received on Fri 21 Jul 2006 10:10:31 AM CDT