#659 of 1001 · May 21, 2022

The Week of the Brothers Turned into Birds has woven its winged spell, and to conclude I present Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans, retold by Amy Ehrlich and illustrated by Susan Jeffers. Ehrlich’s eloquent writing honors the language of Andersen’s original text. Jeffers creates entrancing, detailed art by first laying down a pencil drawing, then applying fine-line pen, adding color with inks and dyes, and finally erasing the original pencil lines. She achieves shading and texture in her compositions through the use of shading, cross-hatching, and an intricate pebbled texture. A note for folklore enthusiasts: this tale was originally written by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen and published in 1838 in Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Ny Samling. Første Hefte (Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. First Booklet). In developing this literary variant of the well-known tale type, Andersen drew inspiration most directly from “The Eleven Swans”, a folktale collected by Mathias Winther in 1823. #brother #brothers #sister #bird #birds #swan #swans #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks