A woman wanted to have a child, but not knowing how to go about it, asked a witch for help. The witch gave her a barley seed and told her to plant it. No sooner had she done so than a large tulip grew. When it opened, the woman discovered a tiny girl, no bigger than her thumb. She called her Thumbelina.
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Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include 'The Emperor's New Clothes', 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Nightingale', 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier', 'The Snow Queen', 'The Ugly Duckling' and 'The Little Match Girl'. His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films 'The Little Mermaid' in 1989 and 'Frozen', which is loosely based on 'The Snow Queen', in 2013.

Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.