Genre 2 - Traditional Literature
"Read one of the following Caldecott award/honor and notable traditional tales"
Plot Summary
As the largest and last egg hatched into a duck family with five normal siblings, the ugly duckling encounters numerous hardships throughout his youth. The duckling first encounters teasing at home by all the other birds, so he leaves home. Then he gets caught up in a wild goose hunt and approached by a hunting dog who passes him by, he suspects because he is so ugly. Next he lives with a woman and her cat and hen who tease him for not being useful, but leaves them to seek out the water. He then spends time on his own, but as winter approaches he is nearly frozen into the lake. He is rescued from the ice by a man and taken home to the man's kind children who he is scared of; he flees, thinking they will also tease him. He spends the rest of the winter on his own, nearly starving. When spring comes, he stretches his wings and finally meets up with a flock of swans where he discovers that he has himself become a beautiful swan.Critical Analysis
Pinkney's adaptation stays quite true to the original story by Andersen. Some conversations have been reduced from the original translations, and the introductory setting is simplified, but all of the major plot elements remain. Many adaptations simplify the duckling's maturation and keep him in one place through them all, but this story stays true to the original and sends him out on his own to encounter many types of perils.Pinkney's soft watercolors are strikingly realistic and lend amazing veracity to this story of a growing swan who thinks he's just an ugly duck for so long a time. The illustrations are full of details and emotion, even when the subjects are all animals. Pinkney's artistic style is a great match for a story like The Ugly Duckling, portraying not just the duckling, but also the many different encounters and even the seasonal changes surrounding the duckling.
Connections
- Explore and discuss the challenges faced by being different and how to find inner beauty.
- Pair with The Sissy Duckling
by Harvey Fierstein to help children understand the problems faced by sissy or potentially gay children
- Compare and contrast with different retellings to explore many aspects of storytelling, illustrating, or writing.
The Ugly Duckling
illustrated by Henri Galeron
The Ugly Ducklingadapted by Rachel Isadora
The Ugly Duckling: The Graphic Noveladapted by Martin Powell
The Ugly Ducklingadapted by Stephen Mitchell
Awards/Reviews
Caldecott Honor BookALA Notable Children's Book
From Publishers Weekly:
Pinkney's (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi) supple, exquisitely detailed watercolors provide a handsome foil to his graceful adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic. . .Pinkney's artwork is a swan song to the beauty of the pastoral, and his lush images flow across the pages in sweeping vistas and meticulous close-ups. Whether depicting the subtle patterns and colors of a duck's feathers, the murky twilight of a freshwater pond or the contrast of red berries against dried grasses etched with snow, Pinkney's keenly observed watercolors honor nature in all its splendor. A flawlessly nuanced performance by a consummate craftsman.From School Library Journal:
The appeal of this tale is as strong today as it was 150 years ago, and Pinkney has done an admirable job of repackaging it for a new generation. His adaptation of the text succeeds in capturing the gentleness and melancholy of Andersen, although a bit of the social commentary has gone by the wayside. Pinkney does not shy away from including the more disturbing elements, such as the shooting of the geese, recognizing this episode's importance to the fabric of the story. The first glimpse he gives readers of the duckling, having at long last emerged from his shell, exhausted and vulnerable despite his size, foreshadows the events to come and immediately engages children's sympathy. Naturalists will quibble over the artist's choice of birds. This duckling is born into a mallard family, wild, not domestic, and the geese are Canadas, whose range is generally North America. However, these details do not in any way detract from the feast to the eye that these illustrations are, carefully composed and rich in detail. Even those owning The Ugly Duckling as told by Marianna Mayer, illustrated by Thomas Locker (Macmillan, 1987; o.p.)-the most recent "Duckling" of note-will welcome this fresh new version. An artistic tour de force that is worthy of its graceful fine-feathered subject.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJFrom Booklist:
Like his illustrations for Patricia McKissack's Mirandy and Brother Wind (1989), Pinkney's joyful watercolors set his adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's classic story in an old-fashioned pastoral world. The gorgeous double-page spreads combine realistic light-filled scenes of farmyard and pond life with a focus on one small bird who doesn't fit in, an awkward creature who appears to disrupt the natural harmony but is really part of the wonder of connection and renewal. Andersen's story has inspired outsiders for more than 150 years, and Pinkney tells it here with stirring drama. . . The final picture of the great swan in the water with blooming flowers, leaping fish, and a hovering dragonfly, is a triumph of delicacy and strength, harmony and grace. --Hazel RochmanFrom The Horn Book:
Andersen's story of the duckling who became a swan has become part of folklore and as such is suited to retelling and adaptation. A brief note on the copyright page identifies the sources for this version as Lang's Yellow Fairy Book and Andersen's Fairy Tales (originally published as Faery Tales from Hans Andersen). The narrative, obviously crafted with much thought as to the pacing required for picture-book format, emphasizes the actions of the protagonists but omits the social commentary and philosophizing found in Erik Hauggard's translation. Yet the essential tone is retained, and there is more than a hint of Andersen in the diction. The illustrations-gorgeous watercolors-are mesmerizing, and a fitting interpretation of the story. Each spread is a marvel of texture, color, and movement, carefully composed so that it surrounds but does not overwhelm the text. Take, for example, the illustration depicting the duckling frozen in the water: we have a cross-section view of a winter landscape; the ice forms the dividing line between water and air; the duck's head and body rests on the surface, his legs visible in the water. Surely, no more pathetic depiction of his plight could be imagined. The book's size is suitable for sharing with a group-always a consideration for picture-book programs. And shared it should be, for it is a splendid production.
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