Bedtime stories
Gentle stories that settle rather than stir up. Nothing frightening, nothing that ends on a cliffhanger, and all of them short enough to finish before anyone falls asleep.
Every story here is rated 2 or below for scariness and takes under twelve minutes.
Ages 4-9
Cinderella
A girl is made to sleep in the ashes by her stepmother and stepsisters while they go to the ball. With help from her godmother she gets one night out, one beautiful dress, and one warning: be home by midnight. She very nearly is.
9 min readCharles PerraultRead itAges 3-8
The Three Little Pigs
Three pig brothers leave home to build houses of their own. Two of them hurry, building with straw and sticks so they can go and play. The third takes his time and builds with brick. When a hungry wolf comes knocking, only one house is still standing, and all three brothers learn why it pays to do a job properly.
5 min readJoseph JacobsRead itAges 5-10
Rapunzel
A man steals lettuce from a witch's garden for his pregnant wife, and pays for it with the baby. The girl grows up alone in a tower with no door and no stairs, and does not know that either of those things is strange, until somebody who is not the witch calls up from the bottom.
9 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead itAges 4-9
Sleeping Beauty
A fairy nobody remembered to invite curses a newborn princess to die on a spindle. A younger fairy, hiding behind the curtain with her gift still unspent, cannot undo it and argues it down to a hundred years of sleep instead. In Perrault's original there is no kiss at the end. The hundred years is simply up.
9 min readCharles PerraultRead itAges 3-7
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Three bears go out for a walk while their porridge cools. A girl called Goldilocks finds their door open and lets herself in, and tries everything in the house until she finds the one that suits her. Then she falls asleep, and they come home.
5 min readJoseph JacobsRead itAges 3-8
The Gingerbread Man
A little old woman bakes a gingerbread man and forgets about the time. He sits up, gets out through a propped-open door, and outruns everybody who chases him: the old woman, the old man, a cow, a horse and a barn full of threshers. Then he reaches a river, and a fox who has been sitting quite still offers him a lift.
8 min readAnonymousRead itAges 5-10
Rumpelstiltskin
A miller cannot bear an awkward silence in front of a king, so he claims his daughter can spin straw into gold. She cannot. A small man can, and his price goes up each night until it is her first child. The tale everybody remembers as being about a wicked imp is really about the two men who never face any consequences at all.
10 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead itAges 4-9
The Ugly Duckling
A large grey bird hatches in a duckyard and is bitten, pecked and pushed about until he leaves. He survives a marsh, a very opinionated cat and hen, and a winter that nearly kills him. At the end he flies at a flock of swans expecting to be killed for daring to come near, and they welcome him, and only then does he look down and see what he is.
11 min readHans Christian AndersenRead itAges 3-8
The Tortoise and the Hare
A hare laughs at a tortoise for being slow, so the tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare is so far ahead that he lies down for a nap, and wakes up to find the tortoise has already finished.
3 min readAesopRead itAges 4-9
The Ant and the Grasshopper
A grasshopper sings all summer from the top of a dry stalk while the ants below him carry grain into a bank, one piece at a time. Then the field goes grey, the frost comes, and he knocks on their door. The ant asks him what he was doing all summer. He tells her the truth.
4 min readAesopRead itAges 4-9
The Emperor's New Clothes
An emperor who cares about nothing but clothes is sold a suit that only clever, capable people can see. His minister cannot see it. Nor can the emperor. Nor can anybody in the city, and every single one of them decides to say nothing about it, until a small child at the front of the crowd says the obvious thing out loud.
7 min readHans Christian AndersenRead itAges 4-9
The Frog King
A princess drops her golden ball into a well and promises a frog anything to get it back. She does not mean a word of it. Her father makes her keep every word of it, and the frog is turned back into a prince not by a kiss but by the moment she finally loses her temper.
8 min readThe Brothers GrimmRead itAges 5-10
Puss in Boots
A miller leaves his youngest son a cat. The cat asks for a bag and a pair of boots, invents a nobleman called the Marquis de Carabas, and spends three months lying to a king on his master's behalf. There is a river, a field of frightened mowers, and an ogre who should never have taken the bait.
8 min readCharles PerraultRead itAges 4-9
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
A bored shepherd boy shouts that a wolf is coming, twice, for the fun of watching the village run up the hill. When a wolf actually comes, he shouts again and nobody moves.
3 min readAesopRead it