This was a fun fairy tale to read. I would like to read this to my class when we are either talking about birthdays or at the beginning of the year when we talk about meeting new friends. Smudge and Stripe were fun characters to read about. I liked it a lot!

This is a good example of a folk tale because the animals in the story all talk and act like humans even though they are really just animals. The plot, characters and setting are all established within a few lines of the story and the narrative is kept simple. The characters are stereotypical (goose likes swimming, mole is always digging holes, etc) and the setting is intentionally vague.

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