5 Minutes For Books

Sylvia Long’s Thumbelina

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Sylvia Long’s Thumbelina is a breathtakingly beautiful piece of work. From start to finish, I was positively enthralled and delighted, both by this traditional telling of Hans Christian Andersen’s story, but by the way that Long painted Thumbelina into life.

Sylvia Long’s Thumbelina uses jewel-toned paintings to depict scenes from this fairy tale. Most of the book reads and appears as a normal book would, in that you would read the page spreads horizontally. However, some of the page spreads are to be read vertically as well, keeping the reader engaged in the story both from natural fascination of the story, and pure delight born of Long’s creativity.

I’m running out of adjectives here, folks, but this book is just beautiful. In every single way – it’s beautiful!

The last page, which depicts Thumbelina’s wedding to the tiny fairy prince, is a fold out spread. We are given a panoramic view of a fairy celebration and I found myself just gazing at it, taking it in with my eyes and feeling positively happy with each new fairy discovery.

Sylvia Long’s talent is most evident as she obviously gives great attention to detail. My 3 1/2 year old son sat through the whole book – which isn’t exactly a quick and easy read – totally enthralled. I asked him twice if he was done reading and wanted to go play but he choose to sit and enjoy the whole book. We shared it together which is the best way to utilize this book.

Sylvia Long’s Thumbelina is an experience and I’m happy to inform you that Chronicle Books is offering such an experience to one of our readers. One of you will win a copy of the book as well as a poster depicting Sylvia Long’s artwork and interpretation of this classic Andersen tale.

To win? Simply leave a comment below. This contest is open to U.S. Residents only. We’ll announce the winner on May 5.

Congratulations to the winners of last week’s giveaways:
Chicken Soup for Mom and Dad: #17 Diane Westerbeek and #46 Susan.
EcoMazes: 12 Earth Adventures: Grand Prize book & Marcal Small Steps starter pack #3 Dena, and books for #7 debp and #12 melissa n.
I Love God’s Green Earth devotional & Marcal Small Steps starter pack – #11 – Alison S.
Genoa Bay – #32 – Yvonne Butler

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know and Reading My Library.

Comments

  2. The cover of the book is beautiful. While I know you’re not suppose to judge a book by it’s cover, it sounds like in this instance it may be okay. 😉

  7. This brings back memories of reading Thumbelina as a kid. I think we actually had a book on record (how old does that make me, lol) of it. I love the art in this particular one.

  13. I’d love this for my daughter. Thanks for the chance!
    Kelly Deaton – secrets_girl23(at)yahoo(dot)com (aka) dkad23(at)gmail(dot)com

  14. This book looks lovely. Thumbelina used to be my favorite bedtime story and I would love to have a copy.

  17. My granddaughter would love this. Thanks for the chance to win it.
    pbclark(at)netins(dot)net

  24. This and Tom Thumb were 2 of my favorites when I was a child. thanks.

  25. Every time my grandbebes come over (which is rather often), they always ask for “Gigi Storytime”. We DO have a houseful of books (at one time, I ran out of bookshelf space and actually had them lined up against the wall until I gave in and culled and donated lots of them out). They LOVE beautiful pictures and great stories (and my 9-year-old, who pretends that he is too old for picture books and only reads chapter books now), sits on the side and pretends not to listen – but he enjoys them as well!

  29. Love how bold and beautiful it is.,.should be good. Thanks for the giveaway

  36. My preschool daughter would absolutely love this book! thank you so much for the chance in your giveaway!

  40. The illustrations look wonderful. I’d love to have this for my new grandbaby.

  43. I love children’s book that have beautiful illustrations. I feel they add so much to the story and encourage discussion about the pictures and how they represent the story. THanks so much for the chance to win this beautiful book.

  50. Would love to win, looks like a great book for my great grandchildren, please send my way, thank you.

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