Listening to Hans Christian Andersen

PlainTales recently released an unabridged collection of Hans Christian Andersen stories.

There are couple of things that are unique about our version:

1. The stories we selected can be enjoyed by kids as young as 4 years old. Many of his most famous stories have very adult themes and language. Examples include The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen. But the stories we selected, such as The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor’s New Clothes can be understood and enjoyed by even the youngest listeners.

2. Our stories are unabridged translations of the stories written by Hans Christian Andersen. The shelves are full of “retold” version of his stories. In many cases this is fine and we think it’s a great idea to listen to, or read, both the original stories and to explore thoughtful retellings. But there are also lots of versions of the story that are churned out with little regard for the original story and their audience.

We think hearing the unabridged versions of these classics together as a family is a source of great entertainment and education and PlainTales makes it easy to enjoy these stories together. Most people probably know these stories by reputation or from a retold version. Hans Christian Andersen was an amazing storyteller and a true literary writer and it’s a real treat to hear the original stories.

When I first looked into buying these classic stories on audio to listen to with my kids I found a couple of collections that were well done but I had to pre-screen the stories to come up with a selection that would work for the whole family. With PlainTales that work is already done.

PlainTales Giveaway – Share Your Thoughts on Classic Stories

Greetings!

PlainTales was started with the idea that kids can enjoy and learn from unabridged, classic stories by literary authors such as Nesbit, Potter, Kipling, Wilde, Andersen, Hawthorne and others, even at a very young age. Retail stores are full of re-written classics that don’t respect the intelligence of children and that often aren’t even true to the original stories. I recently bought a collection of “classic” stories from a major retailer and, not only were the stories so dumbed down that I barely recognized them, the book was full of typos and misspellings!

Maybe you have similar reasons for appreciating classic stories or maybe you have a completely different view. Either way if you’d like to share your thoughts with the PlainTales community we’ll be happy to send you a free PlainTales CD of your choice.

PlainTales will give away a free CD to the first 10 PlainTales Fans that write a post on the PlainTales Wall telling us why you appreciate classic stories for children. All you need to do is post your thoughts on the PlainTales Wall and then send me your mailing information and the CD you’re interested in.

Thanks!

Brian Keairns
PlainTales Inc.
promotions@plaintales.com

 

PlainTales at Kidsfest 2009 in Des Moines

The PlainTales team had a great time at Kidsfest 2009. The show was well attended by people from Des Moines and surprisingly from all around the country. We had people visit our booth from as far away as California and Florida. It was a great opportunity to spread the word about PlainTales and our love of classic stories.