To finish the week, here are some Little Match Girl illustrations by illustrators featured on Picture Book:
First, here's a series of five by Aya Tsai which are quite lovely.
And finally a single illustration by Lucinda McQueen with a happier tone even if the match girl is painfully young in this one:
Persistent Entertainment, Pantry Films and Zenescope Entertainment are teaming up to produce an adaptation of Zenescope's comic "The Piper."
"Piper" aims to take a dark look at the Pied Piper of Hamelin fable. The story will center on a much-bullied high school band student who unintentionally channels the spirit of the mysterious Pied Piper and triggers terrifying consequences of his actions beyond his control.
Seven hundred years ago he took a horrifying revenge and paid the ultimate price for his sins. Now he's returned to forge a deal that will cost more than your life! Present day Florida, a prestigious boarding academy where a musically gifted but misunderstood high school student named Sean stumbles upon a mysterious book that will give him the ability to finally get back at those who have wronged him the last few years. But when Sean realizes exactly what he has summoned, he knows that the price of revenge is certainly not worth the trouble... It's time to pay the Piper! All four issues now collected in one incredible trade paperback!
Hansel and Gretel is often one of the most controversial of fairy tales--from its inclusion of witches to the cannibalism to the violence, not to mention the child abandonment issues. So it's interesting to see a different interpretation of it cause controversy since I am just the observer. Obviously I'm not the only interested party since variations of the following article appeared on a few news services this week.
Hoodie and Gretel: Revolt over Christmas school play casting pair as hooligans by Andy Dolan
It's supposed to be a fairy tale about heroic children defeating a witch--perfect for stirring up some Christmas spirit.
But one primary school has transformed Hansel and Gretel into a depressing study of anti- social behaviour for its pantomime.
It sees the brother and sister recast as present-day thugs who behave like stereotypical hoodie-wearing yobs and terrorise their neighbourhood in search of a gingerbread house.
Today I offer some different illustrative interpretations of Little Match Girl by Golden Age illustrators, courtesy of my own website: 
by Arthur Rackham
by Harry Clarke (I have a love/hate relationship with Clarke's illustrations and this is one of the ones that simply doesn't work for me.)
by Anne Anderson
by Honor Appleton
Smallworld is another game receiving a lot of press this year. It is "on the slant" for the blog but since it deals with fantasy characters such as orcs, dwarves, giants, trolls, etc. and it is so popular right now and yet still obscure to many, I thought I'd cover it here.
Smallworld (ignoring the name's inadvertent reminder of a certain famous song and ride at some famous theme parks) is a version of Civilization, Risk, etc. but with fantasy characters and not grounded in history. It is also more lighthearted and plays faster for those who feel bogged down by those older games.
Manufacturer's product description:
Small World is a zany, light-hearted civilization game in which 2-5 players vie for conquest and control of a board that is simply too small to accommodate them all! Picking the right combination of fantasy races and unique special powers, players must rush to expand their empires - often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline and ride a new one to victory. Designed by Philippe Keyaerts, as the fantasy follow-up to his award-winning Vinci, Small World is inhabited by a cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and even humans; who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth. Small World marks the return of the Days of Wonder line of heavily-themed, big-box sized games featuring evocative illustrations, high-quality European components and a compelling, fun theme.
Since I also wrote about Pinkney's Little Match Girl today, I decided to give a separate entry to his latest book, The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney.
This book is a popular favorite for the Caldecott next month at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The cynic in me then thinks this one won't win but I have better luck predicting Caldecotts than Newbery winners, so I will stay hopeful.
This is a wordless picture book, telling the familiar fable through imagery, and has been receiving starred reviews from pretty much every major review source. I agree it is lovely and plan to add it to my own library, sooner rather than later. A first edition is nice especially if it does win the Caldecott gold, but even if just wins the honor silver, I will be satisfied. I think.
Review from School Library Journal:
Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 3—This story starts on the cover with the glorious, golden countenance of a lion. No text is necessary to communicate the title: the direction of the beast's gaze and the conflicted expression on his tightly cropped face compel readers to turn the book over, where a mouse, almost filling the vertical space, glances back. The endpapers and artist's note place these creatures among the animal families of the African Serengeti. Each spread contributes something new in this nearly wordless narrative, including the title opening, on which the watchful rodent pauses, resting in one of the large footprints that marches across the gutter. In some scenes, Pinkney's luminous art, rendered in watercolor and colored pencil, suggests a natural harmony, as when the cool blues of the sky are mirrored in the rocks and acacia tree. In other compositions, a cream-colored background focuses attention on the exquisitely detailed and nuanced forms of the two main characters. Varied perspectives and the judicious use of panels create interest and indicate time. Sounds are used sparingly and purposefully—an owl's hoot to hint at offstage danger or an anguished roar to alert the mouse of the lion's entrapment. Contrast this version with Pinkney's traditional treatment of the same story (complete with moral) in Aesop's Fables (North-South, 2000). The ambiguity that results from the lack of words in this version allows for a slower, subtle, and ultimately more satisfying read. Moments of humor and affection complement the drama. A classic tale from a consummate artist.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
Here are some more Little Match Girl picture books. I am sharing reviews culled from several sources. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have reviews for different versions under the same title--in other words, reviews for one version listed under ones illustrated by someone else. The clues in the review help, but I have sorted the reviews with their proper editions below.
The first is still in print:
From School Library Journal (this review also includes Lavrey's Little Red Riding Hood:
Gr 1–3—The first retelling is true to the original poignant tale of hunger, cold, and the death of the young girl selling matches on the street. Lavreys's fanciful acrylic paintings soften Andersen's indictment of an indifferent society that allows such poverty and misery to exist. The resignation and calm on the girl's face capture her sadness, as does the artist's palette of soft colors. Bright colors, collage elements, and whimsical landscapes suit Little Red Riding Hood. The girl's coat is a collage of faint words, and she follows a path strewn with vowels through the sun-lit woods. A sinister wolf is coiled around a slanting tree and distracts the child long enough for him to arrive first at Grandma's cottage. This springtime version makes an interesting contrast to Jerry Pinkney's Little Red Riding Hood (Little, Brown, 2007), which takes place in winter. Lavreys's fanciful folk art expands the way young readers and listeners will see this familiar tale.—Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN
Pinkney's deeply moving treatment of Andersen's classic tale moves the events to an urban America of the 1920s. On a freezing New Year's Eve, a girl stumbles outside in her stocking feet to try and sell matches. The jovial holiday crowd hustles by her; she is afraid to go home, where her father will beat her. To keep herself warm she lights her matches, and each blazes in a dream of holiday happiness. Her last vision is that of her kind grandmother, whom the child joins in a place beyond the reach of cold and poverty. On the last page, two shooting stars are shown blazing across the dark New Year's sky. Pinkney's detailed watercolors bring to life this cold winter night, and profusion of food and gifts just out of the girl's reach. Flecks of snow tumble across the outdoor scenes, and warm yellow candlelight make indoor settings look especially cozy. Pinkney's sense of pacing is also just right; readers will be captivated by the intimacy and drama his illustrations create. The result is so affecting that some will believe they're encountering this story for the very first time.
Bell (The Little Mermaid) renders Andersen's story with painful vividness, resisting the urge to draw attention to her own prose. Instead Pacovsk 's stark expressionist plates dominate the pages. An eminence grise among European illustrators, she fully exploits the media in which she works. Collages overlaid with pastel and felt-tip pen, printed on heavy, glossy stock, represent elements of the Little Match Girl's story. Her life unfolds as bold red-scribbling, terrifying chaos. Her frozen feet are white lines on black, while smaller drawings experiment with other deceptively simple ways of drawing feet and matches. A little red "WHoosh!" taped into a narrow gap between blocky, steel-gray apartment buildings indicates where she sits; later, a shooting star foretells her death. The star falls across a full-bleed spread, its path on the left page stenciled into shiny silver foil, like a lake or a mirror; the right-hand page depicts a series of pastel smudges arranged in a grid that seem to stand for the tears and dirt on the Little Match Girl's face, but also resemble an artist's palette. With smaller fragments of silver, the star strikes the heroine. Every page contains a similar shock, a moment of alienation, and yet viewers will likely feel the rightness of these images for one of Andersen's most disturbing stories. This rendering will be best suited to those who know the tale well and can appreciate this intellectual, abstract presentation. All ages.
Grade 1-4–An internationally renowned Czech artist brings her avant-garde perspective to Andersen's timeless fable. Pacovská's playful art is challenging and experimental, featuring childish scrawls, bright smudges of color along with silver inlays, and whimsically amorphous figures. One illustration depicts the girl's eyes, nose, and cupped hands scribbled across what appears to be a financial balance sheet. One spread consists of squares of color smudges facing a shiny silver page on which readers find their own reflection. The two pages are linked by a multicolored paintbrush/matchstick form. The image of the matchstick recurs throughout in all colors and shapes, singly or in groups, some leaning at angles, some resembling picket fences. Though the art challenges, it is appropriately childlike and whimsical, and opens this classic tale to new interpretations. Thoughtful students of folktale will welcome Pacovská's brilliantly innovative vision.–Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA
Gr. 2-4. This striking picture book, with its smooth, able translation, presents Andersen's story of the little girl who stands out in the bitter cold on New Year's Eve, hoping to sell matches. When no one buys them, she lights her matches and sees beautiful visions in their flames. The next morning, she is found dead. Many illustrators have presented idealized visions of the match girl, which tend to sentimentalize her story, but Pacovska takes a different approach. Winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration in 1992, the artist doesn't depict the tale realistically or emphasize its pathos; instead, she offers expressive and sometimes expressionistic pictures. Even the placement of story and illustration is unusual. The entire text appears on five pages, interspersed among 12 full- and double-page illustrations. Featuring bold colors in mixed media, silver foil elements, and cut-paper collages, the striking artwork is naive in style but sophisticated in design. Often abstract and sometimes puzzling (a giant's body with a bird's head clutching a fork), Pacovska's highly original illustrations leave plenty of space for interpretation and imagination, especially for art students. Carolyn Phelan
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen and illustrated by Rachel Isadora is perhaps the most popular picture book version of the tale, staying in print since 1987 when it was first published.
Review from Publishers Weekly:
Andersen's tale about a little girl who's afraid to go home because she hasn't sold enough matches is a classic. The little girl, bareheaded and barefoot, curls up in a corner, lighting match after match to warm herself. In the flames she sees visions; in the final one, her grandmother appears and lifts the little girl into heaven. With muted blues, grays and browns, Isadora captures the mood of a snowy Victorian winter reminiscent of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. With these illustrations, coupled with superb book design, the artist has surpassed even the splendid art in her previous books.
Dixit by Asmodée Editions is another game I discovered in my browsing this week. It is a storytelling game of sorts developed in France where it won best game of the year in Cannes as well as Games Magazine Awards Best Party Game 2010 Award.
The game is French, obviously, but has descriptions and instructions printed in multiple languages, conveniently one is English. What stands out about this game is how pretty it is. The art by Marie Cardouat is beautiful and features fairy tale imagery in general, not the specific. You can see more images on Board Game Geek. There will also soon be a Dixit 2 available as an expansion pack or stand alone game all its own. It is due out in 2010 from what I understand. When there is an expansion pack, one can assume the game is a bestseller. Just look at Carcassonne or Settlers of Catan games.
Here's a description of the game:
Each player at his turn plays the storyteller. He is given a single picture, while the other players get a hand of six pictures. The storyteller says a sentence or a word connected to his picture, then each player chooses one of his pictures to bet upon. All pictures are showed face up, and every player has to bet upon what picture was the storyteller's.
If nobody or everybody finds the correct picture, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer scores 3. Players score 1 point for every vote gotten by their own pic.
The game ends when the deck is empty. The greatest total wins the game.
Here's a link to SlashFilm's Exclusive: Disney’s Upcoming Hand-Drawn Movies Revealed, Including The Snow Queen by Brendon Connelly. The article is about Disney's plans to finally make a Snow Queen film and release it in a few years. The music will be by Alan Menken and the film will be hand-drawn animation, like The Princess and the Frog.
Now this isn't so much brand new news as a revamping of old news. The Snow Queen has been in development and on hold off and on at Disney for at least ten years. When I lived in Los Angeles, my husband and I were friends with some of the animators working on it in the preliminary stages while they were working on Atlantis, if that gives you a time frame. Then the lay-offs and move away from hand-drawn occurred and the project went on the back burner.
I will be interested to see how The Snow Queen is developed. The rough adaptation shared by the animators back then barely resembled Andersen's original tale. I was amused no end when the story told to me didn't resemble anything of the original--I think even Kai and Gerda's names were different. There was also much more of a love story in it, of course. Wouldn't be a Disney fairy tale without one...
Once again, I am always bemused by Disney fairy tales. I appreciate the publicity and notice of the tales, keeping them in pop culture and world view. I hate that the Disney version becomes the definitive version to so many people, removing many of the facets I love and making a straight out villain tale, although Snow Queen is much better suited to that storytelling method. Most people are completely unfamiliar with this tale. Some of the other articles about the Snow Queen preliminary art from Disney have commented on how she appears to be the villain and not the heroine. Those of us in the know, know that Gerda is the heroine.
On that note, December has become a month of theme weeks and I have already planned a Snow Queen week around the Winter Solstice. Consider it a boon to those of you who don't celebrate Christmas or perhaps even Hannukah or Kwanzaa or any winter holiday, or summer holiday for my readers on the opposite side of the equator. So stay tuned for many more entries about Snow Queen in a little less than two weeks.
I've had a post about Wonders and Marvels in the preliminary stages for several weeks and this is the perfect time since next week the site is focusing specifically on fairy tales.
Here's a press release: “The History of the Fairy Tale” Week Begins December 13 on Wonders and Marvels.
All are invited to a weeklong celebration of the meaning and mystery of fairy tales.
Come hither into the marvelous, mysterious, complex and fascinating world of fairy tales for grown-ups at the Wonders and Marvels website all week beginning December 13. The History of the Fairy Tale week will feature guest blog posts, book giveaways, profiles of the earliest fairy tale writers, and much more.
“Fairy tales weren’t initially written for children. The earliest tales are full of sex, desire, and violence. Hardly the stuff of sweet dreams,” says cultural historian Holly Tucker, who curates Wonders and Marvels.
Among the guest posts from university professors and specialists of the fairy tale will be “5 Fairy Tales about Fairy Tales,” “5 of the Best Tales You’ve Never Read,” and “5 Reasons Why I Would Not Read These Fairy Tales to My Child.”
All week long, readers will be eligible to win copies of fairy tale collections such as The Complete Tales of Charles Perrault (Oxford University Press.) [Read SurLaLune's post about the book here.]
Those who wrote the earliest fairy tales were many times as colorful as their tales. Readers will be treated to the profiles of such fairy tale authors as Giovanni Francesco Straparola, Giambattista Basile, Madame d’Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, and Madame de Beaumont (author of “Beauty and the Beast.”)
Striking 12 by Groovelily is a musical of Little Match Girl for lack of a simpler explanation.
Here's more from the Groovelily website:
Striking 12 is the concert-with-a-story, band-is-the-actors GrooveLily secular holiday show that put us on the map of the musical theatre world. We wrote it with Rachel Sheinkin, who is now famouser for having won a Tony for the book of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. But we had her first.
“Striking 12″ is indeed a holiday show that has more heart and fun than most of the manufactured entertainments competing for your consumer dollars.
– Frank Scheck, The New York Post
…this modest show is more artfully crafted and engaging than virtually all the standard-mold musicals coming our way these days…The most important ingredient for a successful musical, it has long been acknowledged, is a first-rate score, and this one is terrific. The lyrics are alive with wit and humor, and they don’t shy away from surging emotion either. I was hooked by a single, lovely pair of lines that manages the tricky feat of encompassing both: “I would not dwell on the past/If time would not go by so fast,” Mr. Milburn sings in “Last Day of the Year.” The music is rhythmic pop founded on a rich vein of melody, with Ms. Vigoda’s electric violin adding a distinctive note to the clean but potent arrangements.
– Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
Found it! I wondered about a fairy tale bingo game a few weeks ago and I found one today. Turns out it is called Once Upon A Time Bingo Game and thus eluded my mad research skills.
This game is by eeBoo which has published many high quality children's games with fairy tale themes, most of which I have previously featured on this blog (see More Fairy Tale Games). I finally got to see many of these in person and they are printed on high quality paper and boards with good boxes. They are quite charming and I am even more impressed with them after handling them at a charming toy store. They are now higher on my personal wish list, too, I admit. eeBoo makes a fine product--these games do not come across as cheap generics but fun games featuring unbranded but recognizable characters.
Manufacturer's Product Description:
Fairytale characters and magical objects are featured on the pieces in the Once Upon A Time Bingo by eeBoo. Maybe a story will develop as you play! A character guide is included for each of the 36 tiles. 2 to 6 players Includes: 6 game boards 36 hexagonal tiles Hexagonal box is 8.75 x 10.
Finding news about fairy tales this month is rather difficult with a bazillion articles about various pantos (always fun, but rather exhausting to sort through) as well as Nutcracker and the usual sports and government themes. Then there is the media blitz about Princess and the Frog opening this Friday. (Never fear, I will devote the week next week to The Frog Prince, but not necessarily Princess and the Frog itself the entire week.)
Anyway, I did find a throwaway article about some trends for fairy tales for adults at Away with the fairies: Awake your inner child by Stephanie Hirschmiller today. Nothing of much news there, but I discovered these two paragraphs about Cecilia Hammarborg.
The new “Black River Falls” collection from the brilliant Swanfield Co-Operative member and designer to watch (find her at Topshop EDIT or Kingly Court), is inspired by the Brothers Grimm’s fairytales and the lesser known 1800’s book entitled “Wisconsin Deathtrip” from which she derived the title for her collection.
We find ourselves fiendishly torn between her divine Blue Riding Hood coat – all the better to be seen in and her Storm Petrel coat inspired by the tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". It’s all about a young girl who in her search for truth is carried about the stormy corners of the world by a massive white Bear. And with its Cossack style high collar, fishtail hem and puff sleeves, truth is certainly a beautiful thing.
I am traveling this week and had the opportunity over the weekend to explore a game store and discover a few more games of interest to me and perhaps you. The first is one I am considering for my own family, Wise and Otherwise.
This game is on the slant for the blog but still applicable because it uses folklore in a way. It is similar to Balderdash, a favorite in my family for several years, the game in which everyone writes definitions for obscure words and then tries to guess the correct ones. Wise and Unwise offers old and obscure old sayings from around the world, letting players create new endings and then everyone has to guess the correct one. 
Editorial review from Amazon:
Voted a Best Party Game of the Year by Games magazine, Wise and Otherwise belongs next to Pictionary and Scrabble in your arsenal of fun. This creative, interactive game (read: everybody shouting, flailing, laughing) revolves around 500 cards, each emblazoned with five obscure and long-forgotten sayings from around the world. For example, one old Chinese saying is, "Don't add salt to a boatload of salt fish." One side of the card states, "Don't add salt to..." and it is the job of the players to devise probable endings. "Don't add salt to salty soup," for example. Or, "Don't add salt to the open wound." (The actual endings are listed on the flip sides of the cards.) A player wins points when other players vote for his or her special ending, or when the player guesses the actual ending, so the goal is to finish the proverb as convincingly as possible given the geographic region in question. Each elegant box contains one game board, 500 cards, six writing pads, six pencils, one die, and six player pawns. People who love language, oddly hilarious translations, offbeat proverbs, or just making people look foolish by guessing their very clever answers will adore this game. We predict: The one who plays this game ... will hear the laughter.
In Wise and Otherwise there are 2,500 wise, funny and unusual old sayings from around the world, and more than a few possible endings! During play the first part of an actual but little known old saying is read aloud. Then, with a little wit and imagination each player writes an ending to go with the beginning. The made-up sayings are read aloud along with the actual old sayings, and everyone tries to guess the real one. You'll get points when other players think your ending is the real one, and points for guessing the real old saying. Contents of Wise and Otherwise: Gameboard 2,500 sayings on 500 cards Writing pads 6 pencils 1 six-sided die 6 player pawns Instructions
This is an online video version of Disney/Pixar's Little Match Girl, a short. For a better quality version, you can find the short as an extra on The Little Mermaid (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) from Disney.
The music is by Alexander Borodin (String Quartet No. 2 in D Major: Third Movement: Notturno) and a lovely choice. I'm partial to Borodin myself because he's one of my husband's favorites. He loves the Polovtsian Dances.
Matchless: A Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire came out earlier this year, although a version of it was first read by the author on NPR last year. You can still listen to the story (or read it) on the NPR site or read an transcript of the program here.
Every year, NPR asks a writer to compose an original story with a Christmas theme. This year, Gregory Maguire reinvents the Hans Christian Andersen classic "The Little Match Girl" for a new time and new audiences.
When it was first translated from Danish and published in England in the mid-19th century, audiences likely interpreted the Little Match Girl's dying visions of lights and a grandmother in heaven as metaphors of religious salvation. Maguire's new piece, entitled, "Matchless," re-illuminates Andersen's classic, using his storytelling magic to rekindle Andersen's original intentions, and to suggest transcendence, the permanence of spirit and the continuity that links the living and the dead.
An illustrated gift edition of "Matchless" will be published by William Morrow in fall 2009.
