Thumbelina

Thumbelina is Hans Christian Andersen's tale of a girl no bigger than a thumb, and her long journey to find where she belongs.

She begins life inside a flower, a gift to a lonely woman who wished for a child of her own. Thumbelina is happy at first, sleeping in a walnut shell and floating on a tulip leaf. Then a toad steals her away in the night, meaning to marry her off to her son down by the marsh. Thumbelina slips free with help from some friendly fish and drifts on downstream, but her troubles are only starting.

A beetle carries her off next, showing her around before dropping her the moment his friends decide she isn't beetle enough for his taste. Alone in the woods as the weather turns cold, she's taken in by a kind field mouse who shares her burrow for the winter. The mouse has a match in mind too: a wealthy mole next door, blind and set in his underground ways. In the mole's tunnel, Thumbelina finds an injured swallow and nurses him back to health in secret. When it comes time for her own wedding to the mole, the swallow is the one who finally carries her off, south to warmer country and a chance at a life her own size.

This is a classic Andersen fairy tale, small in scale but full of narrow escapes, animal helpers, and a heroine who keeps choosing her own path even when everyone else has plans for her. It's a good fit for listeners who love The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, or other old-fashioned tales where the smallest character turns out to be the bravest.

Elizabeth Grace reads slow and soft, with room to breathe between scenes — a gentle way to spend time with an old story before the night takes over and sleep follows close behind.