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The Shoes of Fortune

From Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen

This reader is adapted from \"The Shoes of Fortune,\" one of Hans Christian Andersen's longer and more complex fairy tales for adults, first published in the mid-nineteenth century. Andersen is best remembered for tales like \"The Ugly Duckling\" and \"The Little Mermaid,\" but he also wrote darker, more philosophical stories exploring human longing and discontent. In this tale, a pair of magic shoes grants every wearer's wish—but never in the way they hope. Each character learns that envying another's life, or wishing to escape one's own, leads only to confusion and sorrow. The story's moral is timeless: true happiness comes not from magic, but from gratitude and acceptance. This retelling focuses on three episodes—the Councillor, the watchman, and the young minister—and clarifies the lesson for a young reader, while keeping Andersen's wit and his unsettling, transformative magic. This text reflects its era.

Band

Green · Independent readers, earlyTypical starting range: ages 9–11

Length

medium · about 722 words in 6 sections · 3 pictures

Source

Andersen's Fairy Tales, H. C. Andersen

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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