The Nightingale (1844)

This wonderful old Hans Christian Anderson tale, tells of an Emperor in China who tries to keep a lovely Nightingale caged up to sing to him. Soon, the Nightingale is replaced by a jeweled mechanical one who never tires of singing. The Nightingale never forgets the tears in the Emperor's eyes as he listened to him sing that first time. He helps the Emperor by chasing off Death and lives free to sing when he wishes to the grateful Emperor.
This is a beautiful tale of appreciating what one has in life and not taking advantage of it.
Classroom connection: Folktales of China; study of China ( )

I always love a story about a king who learns humility. This one details an emperor who sends away for the nightingale because of its beautiful song. However, it is not long before the real bird is replaced with a machine, and the emperor realizes the grave mistake he has made.

This book is a retelling of the classic Hans Christian Anderson story. The story tells of an emperor who commands a nightingale to stay in court to sing for him. Then a mechanical bird is made that will sing longer than the real bird. When the real bird flies away, the emperor comes to miss her, especially when he becomes ill and cannot wind the mechanical bird. When the nightingale comes back, the emperor thanks it by allowing it to fly freely, knowing that it will return to him from time to time.

I have always like this story and this version is particularly lovely. This book is illustrated with traditional Chinese scenes. I especially like the landscape paintings. The writing style is elegant and noble.

This book would be a good book for fifth or sixth grade readers. It would introduce cultural ideas along with the more general ideas of freedom and loyalty. The children could also try to copy the style of pictures to practice the Oriental art forms. ( )

This story seems to me to hew very closely to what I remember of the original Nightingale by Andersen... but then, I don't have it directly in front of me to compare. Regardless, the only big change I see is moving the setting to Morocco instead of China (which is just as well, China was only chosen as a shorthand for "far away and mysterious", and who doesn't know all about China by now?) and having a "Fixer-of-all-Things" instead of a clockmaker.

The illustrations are colorful and lovely, and the story is as touching as always, with the classic Andersen theme of valuing the real above the fake. ( )

The story of a nightingale bird that sand the most beautiful songs, ever. The bird becomes so famous throughout the land that the king demands her to be found. The bird meets the king and sings for everyone. Soon the nightingale was replaced by a gold and ruby covered singing bird. After the real bird disappears, the gold bird breaks. When the king was about to die, he needs music, and the nightingale gave him just that and in the morning the king was alive and healthy.