A little sea princess, longing to be human, trades her mermaid's tail for legs, hoping to win the love of a prince and earn an immortal soul for herself.

Illustrated by the beloved creator of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Little House, and Katy and the Big Snow, here is a delightful version of the tale that boys and girls have loved for centuries. The Emperor himself, his court, and his clothes—or lack of them—are ridiculous as only the master storyteller Hans Christian Andersen can make them. Fifty-five years ago, Virginia Lee Burton added to this tale of fun her own irrepressible

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A princess has eleven brothers. The twelve siblings live happily and well, until their father decides to remarry. Their new stepmother is a wicked woman, and she turns all the brothers into swans and banishes the princess from the palace. And so it is left to Elisa to endure countless hardships alone in order to save her beloved brothers from the spell. Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally...

In "The Story of a Mother" A mother is watching over her sick child, when having briefly closed her eyes, Death comes and takes the child. The mother rushes outside to pursue Death and encounters various spirits who offer conditional advice, including a thorn bush, who takes her heart's blood and a lake which takes her eyes in exchange for passage across it. Finally finding her child in Death's greenhouse, he offers her a terrible choice. First published...

In "The Leap-Frog", a flea, a grasshopper and a frog arrange a contest to see who can jump highest. The King offers the hand of the princess to the victor. The flea and the grasshopper, victims of their own vanity and ambition are matched against the patient, wise and humble frog. The short tale is a fable about the perils of high self-regard.

Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. This title is part of "Andersen's Fairy Tales, Volume 2, published by Dreamscape Media. LLC.

In "The Elderbush", a boy arrives home with a cold. His mother whisks him off to bed and prepares some elderflower tea to warm him up. A kindly older neighbor stops by to visit the boy, who asks for a fairy tale. The old man struggles to think of one, but becomes inspired by the aroma of the elderflower tea. A story about how real life can provide subjects for some of the most wonderful fairy tales.

There was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have paved the whole street with gold, and would even then have had enough for a small alley. But he did not do so; he knew the value of money better than to use it in this way. So clever was he, that every shilling he put out brought him a crown; and so he continued till he died. Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded...

Out in the country, close by the side of the road, there stood a country house; you yourself have certainly seen many just like it. In front of it was a little flower garden, with a painted fence around it. Close by the fence, in the midst of the most beautiful green grass beside a ditch, there grew a little daisy. The sun shone just as warmly and brightly on her as on the beautiful flowers inside the garden, and so she grew every hour. Until at last...

In "The Swineherd", a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a prince who disguises himself as a swineherd woos an arrogant princess. Sending her a nightingale and a rose, the princess rejects the humble gifts preferring the artificial over the real. Still disguised as a swineherd, the prince creates a musical pot and charges the princess ten kisses for it. The princess trudges through the mud to pay one hundred kisses for the swineherd's next creation,...