B In this simple retelling of The Ugly Duckling, the illustrations are beautiful, realistic and reinforce what the text is telling the reader. The font is large so the story is easy to read and easy for young children to follow along.

Summary: "The Ugly Duckling" is tale about how a swan egg rolls into a Mother Duck's nest when she was gone. The Mother Duck raised the swan like her own, where it was known as the "ugly duckling." As the ugly duckling grew older, many ducks and other animals teased the ugly duckling and called it ugly. One day, the ugly duckling came upon two hens who clucked at him which made him scared. As a result, the ugly duckling ran away to "hide away from the world." Soon winter came and pass, and he was found by a flock of swan who told him he is not a ugly duckling but a beautiful swan. Thereafter, the ugly duckling accepted being a swan and joined their flock where they lived happily ever after.

Review: The main idea of this story is a swan felt like a ugly duckling all his life because he was raised by ducks. However, when he met a swan he accepted himself and joined their flock. I thought this book was a good retelling of the tale, "The Ugly Duckling." In addition, the illustrations were nice and complimented the story by displaying all the emotions of the swan throughout the trials of his life. ( )

There were some parts of this book that I really enjoyed and some parts that I did not. First, I really enjoyed the repetition throughout the story. When the ugly duckling was curious as to why he was different from his siblings, the mother would always say, “I will love you just the same.” Repetition made the plot predictable and enforced the idea that the mother was not concerned about the ducklings’ differences in appearance. However, I did not like a certain part of the plot due to the fact that it was, in my opinion, under developed. After the ugly duckling ran away from his family, it was clear that the ugly duckling found happiness with the swans and accepted himself. However, it would have been nice to see the (adult) ugly duckling go back to his adoptive family to say goodbye or something of the sort. I felt that that part of the plot could have been more developed. After reading his book, I found that the big idea is to always accept yourself for who you are and to never judge a book by its cover. ( )

This story illustrates the message to not judge someone based on their appearance. The ugly duckling lived with getting teased so badly that he felt the need to run away. The duck went through all of this trouble only to turn into a beautiful swan. This book shows readers not to tease nor judge others in any way. This story can also help those who feel teased and tormented by realizing that it gets better. The swan's story had a happy ending. Everyone can fit in somewhere just like how the ugly duckling can fit in with the swans. ( )

Sebastien Braun, a picture-book author/artist whose work is generally geared toward younger children - think reassurance tales like I Love My Mommy and On Our Way Home, or simple concept-books like Meeow and the Big Box and :Meeow and the Little Chairs - turns his attention to Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy-tale in this new offering for the Story House collection. Depending upon you view of revisionist fairy-tales, this retelling of The Ugly Duckling will appear either in the light of a charming adaptation for younger children, or a misguided watering down of the original. My friends probably won't be surprised to discover I fall more into the latter camp...

Although the simple illustrations - done in India ink, marker pen, and colored pencil - are undeniably cute, the narrative itself is so bland, that I had difficulty understanding why Andersen's tale was used at all. If all that was required was a gentle, feel-good animal story, surely an original one could have been created? But to take a classic story, something that has bite - there is a kind of sharp poignancy to the duckling's suffering, from his rejection by his own mother, to his all-too-brief sojourn with the doomed ganders in the wild - and omit all the disturbing elements, so as not to distress the tots... Well, it doesn't sit right. If The Ugly Duckling is too disturbing for toddlers, I say: read them something else. ( )