When the ugly duckling hatches out of his egg, his brothers and sisters think he's monstrous - his head is too big, his neck is too long and his feet are too large. Soon the ugly duckling is hounded out of the farmyard, unloved and unwanted, and forced to fend for himself.
This book features in the following series: Every Story, Everystory .
There are 64 pages in this book. This book was published 2001 by Scholastic .
The Author: Belinda Hollyer lives in London. She worked first with children as a teacher and librarian, and then in the book business as a publisher for many years. This is her first book for children. The Illustrator: Robin Bell Corfield lives in Leicestershire where he works as an illustrator and artist. He has illustrated several books for children and is published by Harper Collins, Oxford University Press and Mathew Price. Helen Dunmore was an award-winning novelist, poet and children's writer, who will be remembered for the wisdom, lyricism, compassion and immersive beauty of her writing. In her lifetime, she published eight collections of poetry, many novels for both adults and children, and two collections of short stories. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction with her novel A Spell of Winter, her novel The Siege was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Prize for Fiction, and her final poetry collection Inside the Wave won the 2017 Costa Book of the Year.
This book contains the following story:
The Ugly Duckling
A mother duck sits on her eggs. When they hatch she has five pretty ducklings and one ugly grey duckling. How ugly you are, says the mother to her duckling. Wherever they go the message is the same ugly, ugly duckling. The ugly duckling is so upset he runs away and hides. Spring turns to summer and then winter and the ugly duckling stays hidden away from the mean animals. Then spring returns and the ugly duckling emerges from his hiding place to admire a flock of swans on the river. How beautiful you are, he says to them. But so are you, reply the swans and point to the ugly ducklings reflection in the pond. He follows their gaze and realises he is not an ugly duckling any more but has transformed into beautiful swan.
