The Giantess

Emmeline is a giantess who lives alone at the edge of the woods in isolation; she does not want to either scare people or suffer from their outcries because of her exceptional height. When she was young, her mother had erroneously told her that she would never be able to make friends as a giantess and that no man would love her because she would tower over him. One day, a woodsman started to build a cabin beside Emmeline’s house; he would wave at her through the window every day. When he went to invite her to a local carnival, she was sleeping; although he could see that she was a giantess, he was not afraid of her. The next day he called up through her window to invite her to come to the carnival. Emmeline decided she would attend since everyone would be dressed up and people would just assume she had come as a giantess. While she was there, everyone was praising her height and marveling at how wonderful it would be to be so tall and the things she is able to do that they cannot. Read to learn what happened when they found out that she was a real giantess! While this book came out in 1996 in German by Swiss author, Hasler, the story and illustrations have a classic folktale feeling to it. The writing is stylistically engaging and the pictures by Seelig are whimsical and enchanting.