Three-time Caldecott Honor artist Jerry Pinkney brings new relevance to the classic Hans Christian Andersen storyThe wintry streets of an American city are thronged with shoppers, in preparation for New Year's Eve. But no one is interested in buying the matches and artificial flowers offered by one little girl. Wishing to avoid the cold welcome awaiting her at home, she lights her matches for what little heat they can provide. The visions that she sees in their flickering glow warm her spirit, even as the brutal cold of night destroys her body.Three-time Caldecott Honor winner Jerry Pinkney's interpretation of this famous Hans Christian Andersen tale transforms the little Danish girl into a child drawn straight out of the American melting pot--a child who is of no easily identifiable culture, and so is of them all. The poignancy and immediacy of Pinkney's art draw the reader into the early twentieth-century streets, to witness how the poor can be invisible in the midst of the wealthy--a condition Andersen would instantly recognize.