Jacqueline Banerjee views the tale as a story about failure. “Not surprisingly,“ she writes, “”Thumbelina“ is now often read as a story of specifically female empowerment.“ Susie Stephens believes Thumbelina herself is a grotesque. She observes that “the grotesque in children’s literature is [...] a necessary and beneficial component that enhances the psychological welfare of the young reader“. Children are attracted to the cathartic qualities of the grotesque, she suggests. 