Master storyteller Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805–two hundred years ago today–in Odense, Denmark.

Books to look for include:

The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Anderen by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Dennis Nolan (Dutton, 2005)(Jane herself has been oft called “America’s Hans Christian Andersen”);

Hans Christian Andersen: A Celebration by Newbery Medal Winner Karen Hesse (Scholastic, fall 2005).

The best overview resource on the Andersen 200th birthday is “Happy Birthday, Hans Christian Andersen! Preschool through elementary school” by Marjorie R. Hancock from Book Links (March 2005).

April 2 also is International Children’s Book Day (see IBBYs latest related news and information).

Cynsational News & Links

Hans Christian Andersen’s Life and Works: Research, Texts, and Information from the Hans Christian Andersen Center at the University of Southern Denmark.

Hans Christian Andersen 2005: official site for the 200th birthday celebration; requires a Flash plug-in.

An Interview with Children’s Novelist Kashmira Sheth, author of Blue Jasmine (Hyperion, 2004), winner of the Paul Zindel First Novel Award, from Debbi Michiko Florence’s Web site. Read chapter one and visit Kashmira Sheth. Debbi also updated her interview with author Vivian Vande Velde and offers a Buzz Review of A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson (Holt, 2005)(see my blog entry on the same novel).

Greg Leitich Smith blogs about Pinned by Alfred C. Martino (Harcourt, 2005).

Thanks to Julie Lake for meeting me for lunch this week at Suzi’s China Grill & Sushi Bar. Julie is the author of Galveston’s Summer of the Storm and regional advisor for Austin SCBWI.

And I’m honored to hear of sightings of two of my books, Jingle Dancer, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu, (Morrow/HarperCollins, 2000) and Indian Shoes (HarperCollins, 2002), on sale at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian.