Summary: An important part of Teffi’s creativity are stories about children. This article will address the category «beautiful» and «ugly» in the children's perception of the characters in the Teffi’s creativity in the stories from the collections «The Lifeless Beast» (1916), «The Book of June» (1931), «About Tenderness» (1938) «The Earth's Rainbow» (1952). It discusses the relationship of Teffi’s stories about children with children's literature of the Silver Age. It analyzes the moments of transition from one category to another in the mind of one character. It considers the implementation of the motive of the outward ugly and inner beauty, and influence of the categories of «good» / «bad» on the assessment of outward qualities in a child's perception. The article shows a special trend of children's world in Teffi’s stories to evaluate the characters
through comparison with the animal world.