Yellow bandReady now · Open and print today

The Magic Mirror

From 'The Snow Queen' by Hans Christian Andersen

This reader is taken from the opening of 'The Snow Queen', one of Hans Christian Andersen's most famous fairy tales, first published in 1844. Andersen was a Danish author who wrote beloved stories read by children all over the world. In this beginning, we meet the wicked demon and his terrible mirror—the magical object that sets the whole adventure in motion. The fragments of this broken mirror cause the trouble that the rest of the story must resolve. This tale reminds us that how we see the world matters, and that a cruel lens can make even beautiful things seem ugly. This text reflects its era.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8

Length

medium · about 562 words in 6 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Stories from Hans Andersen, 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 (8 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page
• · 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.

Report a concern about this reader · What’s in a HummingRead reader