Thumbelina

Description

Thumbelina is one of a collection of Hans Christian Anderson scripts:

Hans Christian Anderson Collection

• • • • Emperor’s New Clothes
      • Ugly Duckling
      • Princess and the Pea
      • Thumbelina
      • The Magic Tinderbox

Cast of 6

• • • • Narrator
      • Thumbelina
      • Toad
      • Field-mouse
      • Mole
      • Swallow

Duration – around 10 minutes of reading time. This does not include teaching input discussion and suggestions for further activities which will extend the session to at least 20 minutes.

Sample Text

Narrator:             It’s quite the cast from Nature, we have here today!

Thumbelina:        Well, I was born in rather exceptional circumstances!

Narrator:             That’s true enough! I mean, what kind of mother gives a witch twelve shillings for a daughter?

Thumbelina:        Was that all she paid?

Narrator:             Well, who’d have paid more (pauses) for a barleycorn?

Thumbelina:        A barleycorn? That might account for my blond hair!

Narrator:             (Laughing) No, you appeared out of that barleycorn! In fact, it wasn’t til it was planted, and that a beautiful flower appeared, that

Thumbelina:        (Interrupting) I was born?

Narrator:             There you were, sitting in the middle of the petals! Just one inch tall!

Toad:                    That was weird! And they say frogspawn is odd!

Swallow:              And having eggs!

Field-mouse:       Nothing to compare with that form of delivery!

Mole:                   Most bizarre!

Thumbelina:        But my mother was chuffed to bits! Once she’d got over the initial shock!