One must not forget _Peter Rabbit_--that captivating, realistic fairy tale by Beatrix Potter--and his companions, _Benjamin Bunny, Pigling Bland, Tom Kitten_, and the rest, of which children never tire. _Peter Rabbit_ undoubtedly holds a place as a kindergarten classic. In somewhat the same class of merry animal tales is _Tommy and the Wishing Stone_, a series of tales by Thornton Burgess, in _St. Nicholas_, 1915. Here the child enjoys the novel transformation of becoming a Musk-rat, a Ruffed Grouse, a Toad, Honker the Goose, and other interesting personages. A modern fairy tale which is received gladly by children is _Ludwig and Marleen_, by Jane Hoxie. Here we have the friendly Fox who grants to Ludwig the wishes he asks for Marleen. The theme parallels for the little people the charm of _The Fisherman and His Wife_, a Grimm tale suited to the second grade. Among modern animal tales _The Elephant's Child_[12], one of the _Just-So Stories_ by Rudyard Kipling, ranks high as a fairy tale produced for little children by one of the great literary masters of the short-story.
A modern tale that is a bit of pure imagination and seems an attempt to follow Grimm and Andersen, is _A Quick-Running Squash_, in Aspinwall's _Short Stories for Short People_. It uses the little boy's interest in a garden--his garden.--Interest centers about the fairy, the magic seed, the wonderful ride, and the happy ending. It uses the simple, everyday life and puts into it the unusual and the wonderful where nothing is impossible. It blends the realistic and the romantic in a way that is most pleasing. _The Rich Goose_, by Leora Robinson, in the _Outlook_, is an accumulative tale with an interesting ending and surprise. _Why the Morning Glory Climbs_, by Elizabeth McCracken, in Miss Bryant's _How to Tell Stories_, is a simple fanciful tale. _The Discontented Pendulum_, by Jane Taylor, in Poulssen's _In the Child's World_, is a good illustration of the modern purely fanciful tale. _What Bunch and Joker saw in the Moon_, in _Wide-Awake Chatterbox_, about 1887, is a most delightful modern fanciful tale, although it is best suited to the child of nine or ten. _Greencap_, by Ruth Hays, in _St. Nicholas_, June, 1915, appeals to the child through the experience of Sarah Jane, whose Mother and Father traveled to India. Sarah went to live with Aunt Jane and there met Greencap who granted the proverbial "three wishes." _Alice in Wonderland_ ranks in a class by itself among modern fanciful tales but it is better suited to the child of the third and fourth grades.