First sentence: He was a boy
who lived with a mother
who could not read,
but remembered every fairy tale
she'd been told,
and a father who built things
out of wood, sturdy but graceless,
and a grandfather
who danced in the forests of Denmark
without clothes,
but with flowers in his hair;
a boy who wanted to be a poet,
but did not know his ABCs,
who longed to be a writer,
but had never been to school,
who finally, in his teens,
sat with the three-and-four-
and five-year-olds in class,
learning all he could;
Premise/plot: I give up on finishing the first sentence. His Fairytale Life is a picture book biography of Hans Christian Andersen written as a narrative poem....and also possibly the world's longest sentence. (Not really. I'm sure there are longer sentences about.)
My thoughts: I really enjoyed the illustrations for the most part. The narrative style was unique and unusual. I haven't decided if I liked it or not. I like the idea of liking it. And overall, I do think this is an accessible biography that one could read aloud to children. Particularly if you are a teacher studying a fairy tale unit. The sentence may be LONG but it is packed with information. I'm not quite sure I understand *why* his life was more like a fairy tale than a life. Even after reading it twice.
© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers
