Living Books

A living book... The ideas it holds must each make that sudden, delightful impact upon their minds, must cause that intellectual stir, which mark the inception of an idea. (School Education, Charlotte Mason Vol. 3 p. 178)

Hans Christian Anderson's original story of The Little Mermaid (translated by Neil Philip) begins like this:

Far out to sea the water is blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower and as clear as the purest glass; but is deep, deeper than any anchor can reach. Countless church steeples would have to be piled one on top of the other to stretch from the sea bed to the surface. That's where the sea folk live.

...So beautifully written where a child's imagination can delight in the rich language of the story being told! Sadly, the Walt Disney version begins like this:

Ariel was sixteen, the age when a mermaid was supposed to be thinking about marrying a merboy and settling down. But Ariel had other things on her mind.

(Honey For A Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt p. 44)