Today's Strands are about a specific bird fairy tale. That may seem obvious, given the theme is "Fowl fairy tale," but you and I know how the NYT loves to make obscure references in Strands themes. That's not the case today.
The Awakening Audiobook by Kate Chopin (Chapters 01-20)
The hint I gave you in the first sentence of this story is the best you can have for finding today's Spangram. "Fairy tale" in the singular is very important here: it shows how today's Strands is about one specific story, not several. It took me a while to realize that, and when I tried to search for general answers, I accidentally stumbled upon the right one. I highly recommend you think about fairy tales with the name of a bird in their title. Which ones can you remember? It might be the Spangram.
Today's Strands Spangram is UGLYDUCKLING, starting with the "U" in the right column and working back to the "G" in the first column. All of the answers on the board are about the fairy tale The Ugly Duckling, first published in 1843. They relate to the characters or important moments in the story.
Another hint I can give you to find the rest of the words is that luckily you can form them from left to right, so you don't have to spend too much time thinking back. I accidentally found the Spangram when I tried "DUCKLING" and saw that it wasn't part of the answer. I looked to the right to find "UGLY" and finally formed it correctly.
