“This is such a pretty flower,” said the woman. She kissed its lovely red and yellow petals, and just as she kissed it the flower gave a loud pop! and flew open. It was a tulip, right enough, but on the green cushion in the middle of it sat a tiny girl. She was dainty and fair to see, but she was no taller than your thumb. So she was called Thumbelina. ~Thumbelina, Hans Christian Andersen

I have this image in my mind.

A young girl of maybe four years old clings to a sheet in the dark in a noisy camper in the middle of summer. A record plays. A voice from the record player fills the night with words from an audio book. Her brother lies down in the neighboring bunk with a pillow over his head, ignoring the story for the hundredth time. She forgets the…