Once upon a time, a mother duckling sat on her eggs with great impatience. How long would it be before they hatched? Finally, one summer day, the mother duckling watched as the eggs cracked, and her cute, yellow ducklings waddled into the world. She was filled with joy until she noticed that one egg, which was larger than all of the others, remained. After many hours, the egg cracked. A large, gray duckling emerged. The mother duck was horrified at the duckling's appearance. The mother duck's only comfort was that the ugly duckling could swim and dive under the water. As the ugly duckling grew, many animals in the pond criticized him. His feathers were too dark, his neck was too long, and his body was too big. His fellow ducklings refused to recognize that underneath the feathers, the ugly duckling was kind, good, and gentle. The ugly duckling shed many tears because none of the other animals would play with him.

One day, the ugly duckling decided to run far away and find a place where the animals would look past his appearance and be kind and friendly. He came to a pond and sighted three beautiful swans. Their white feathers, long necks, and kind eyes made them look like royalty. The ugly duckling sighed in disappointment. He believed that the swans would never be his friends and looked down into the pond in despair. Then, his eyes opened wide, for he saw his reflection. To his great astonishment, the ugly duckling discovered that he was a beautiful, royal swan! The swans welcomed their new friend, whose lovely appearance was matched only by his kind heart. He now felt like he belonged.

Read the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea.

Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince. The prince lived with his mother and father in a luxurious castle that overlooked a valley of wildflowers and a distant forest. As the prince grew up, he began to long for a princess. However, the prince wanted to be sure that the princess was a real princess. The queen and king searched far and wide for a real princess, but the prince always found something wrong with the princesses they found.

One evening, there was a terrible storm. The wind howled, thunder shook the stone walls, and lightning filled the dark night sky. Through the pelting of the rain, there came a knock at the door. When the king opened the door, he saw a bedraggled girl, soaked to the skin and covered in mud. He ushered her into the castle so that she could warm herself by the fire.

"Why is a young servant girl like you wandering about on such a ferocious night?" queried the king.

The disheveled maiden looked at the king in disbelief. "I am a princess, come to see the prince," she explained, all the while shivering.

The king summoned his wife, the queen, for advice. The queen looked at the hideous creature in disbelief, thinking that no princess would ever allow herself to be found in such a state. She thought quickly and came up with a clever plan. The queen put a small pea at the bottom of a bed and piled twenty mattresses on top of it. When the girl arrived at the room, she had to climb a ladder to reach the top of the bed, where she collapsed in exhaustion.

Bright and early the next morning, the king and queen arrived at the girl's bedchamber. The queen asked the girl how she had slept the night before.

"Absolutely terribly!" bemoaned the maiden. "I have spent the entire night tossing and turning. I don't know whether there is something hard in the bed, or your mattresses are rocks, but my body is black and blue."

The queen and the king stared at the maiden in astonishment. Only a real princess would have such delicate skin that she could feel a pea under twenty mattresses. The queen and king brought her to the prince, who was thrilled to meet a real princess with such an independent spirit.

How do the authors use similar and different events in each fairy tale to illustrate the theme that people should not be judged based on their appearances? Use complete sentences and evidence from the text to support your answer.