FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

Some of Andersen's best-loved tales, perceptively introduced by Philip (The Snow Queen, 1989), who treats them as high literature, never forcing them into ready-made formulas. Grandly ornamental art-deco borders in gold and azure give the book a distinctively handsome appearance and frame illustrations obviously inspired by, and sometimes simply copied from, Gustav Klimt. The pictures tend to the mediocre: banal-looking animals, stiff people, and sketchy landscapes. The few that succeed—of swans rising above the water, or of an icy Snow Queen—have gorgeous ornamental backgrounds. For Philip's phrasing and presentation, this is a worthy volume; young listeners won't mind the pictures, and older readers will be too engrossed in the stories themselves to notice. (Fiction. 5+)