Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
The Queen, the Princes and the Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen · 2021
82/100
👍 Worth It
This Pushkin anthology is a beautiful gift-quality collection — Lucie Arnoux's illustrations are lavish, the story selection is strong, and Helen Crawford-White's retellings are calibrated well for middle-grade readers. Andersen's emotional depths (sacrifice, unrequited love, death) are all here, which means it is richer than most children's anthologies but also deserves a parent nearby for sensitive younger readers.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety82
substance84
craft85
originality72
accuracy88
hype78
age-fit84
human-eye86
Penny’s verdict82
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