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The Bottle Neck

A fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales in Denmark in the nineteenth century, many of them still read today. This tale follows a bottle from the furnace where it was made, through a betrothal picnic, a shipwreck, and many more adventures, until at last it becomes a bird's water-glass in a garret window—right beside the woman whose betrothal toast it once held, though neither recognises the other. Andersen loved to give voices to everyday objects and show that even a broken bottle neck has a story worth telling. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readersTypical starting range: ages 6–8

Length

medium · about 551 words in 5 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Fairy Tales of Hans Christian 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.

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