When an old man’s dog died, his grandchildren buried the poor pet and set up a fine gravestone. It seemed respectful and nice of them. Until they started asking for admission fees from the other neighborhood kids who wanted to see the grave. Were they just joking around and how would their parents react? What happened when a poor girl wanted to see the dog’s grave but could not afford to pay the fee? Find out the answers in Hans Christian Andersen’s “Heartache”.
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.
