BedtimeStory.kids
Tonight's story

221 stories

Classic Tales stories

The fairy tales, fables and folk stories families have told for centuries

Start reading Aesop's Fables Nursery Rhymes Rhyming Stories & Poems
Classic Tales stories

Classic Tales is the largest theme on this site, with 182 stories: Aesop's fables that read aloud in four or five minutes, the Grimm and Perrault fairy tales most adults half-remember, and folk stories carried from Norway, Japan, Russia and China.

These are the stories your grandparents were told, retold for tonight. The Grimm collection, Hans Christian Andersen's tales, Perrault's French court stories, the Norwegian and Russian folk tales gathered by nineteenth-century collectors, and the fables that go back to Aesop are all here, in versions written to be read aloud to a child in bed.

Classic tales last because they are built like good machines: a clear wish, an obstacle, a rule that must not be broken, and a reward or a comeuppance at the end. Children recognise the shape by the third telling and start predicting what comes next, which is the beginning of understanding how stories work. We keep that shape and soften only the details that would keep a small child awake.

If you are choosing tonight: the shortest classics suit preschoolers; the tales with several chapters in the story-book reader are for children who can hold a plot overnight. Every story shows its reading time and suggested ages before you open it.

Where to start in classic tales

12 of the 182 stories in this theme, picked as good first choices: the shortest, the gentlest and the best loved.

4 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales Goldilocks and The Three Bears

Curious Goldilocks wanders into a magical forest and discovers a charming cottage. When she finds nobody home, her…

 6 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Princess and the Pea

A lonely Prince yearns for a true princess, but two grand ladies fail to impress him. Then, on a stormy night, a…

 7 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Gingerbread Man

A kind old woman bakes a delicious gingerbread man who springs to life and dashes off to explore the world. He meets a…

 7 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Tortoise and the Hare

In a lush valley, the speedy Hare challenges the steady Tortoise to a race. Hare's confidence soars, while Tortoise…

 7 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Ugly Duckling

A mother duck hatches a clutch of ducklings, but one egg is unusually large. When it hatches, the grey, scruffy…

 8 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Lion and the Mouse

A timid mouse and a mighty lion cross paths in the jungle. When the powerful king of the jungle finds himself in a…

 9 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Velveteen Rabbit

Velveteen Rabbit, a well-loved toy, dreams of becoming real through a child's affection. Guided by the wise Skin Horse…

 10 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Elves and the Shoemaker

A kind shoemaker and his wife struggle to make ends meet in their quaint village shop. One morning, they discover their…

 13 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood sets off through the enchanting forest to deliver a basket of goodies to her sick grandmother…

 3 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Two Soldiers and the Robber

Tomas and Juan, two brave soldiers, are returning to camp when they encounter a fearsome robber in a dark forest…

 4 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales Dapplegrim

Agnes and Elsa, two brave sisters, live in a village where a whispered legend tells of Dapplegrim, a mischievous forest…

 4 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Bow and the Lyre

In a lush forest, an abandoned silver bow and golden lyre yearn for purpose. A wise old owl encourages them to join…

What makes a tale classic, and who wrote these ones down

A classic tale is one nobody owns. It was told aloud for generations before anyone printed it, which is why the same story turns up in a dozen countries with different names. What collectors did was catch a version and fix it on paper.

The four names behind most of them

  • Aesop, traditionally a storyteller of the 6th century BC, whose animal fables end in a plain lesson. The Hare and the Tortoise is the one every child meets first.
  • Charles Perrault, who published his French tales in 1697. Beauty and the Beast and Puss in Boots come down from that line.
  • The Brothers Grimm, whose first collection appeared in 1812. Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin are theirs.
  • Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), the one genuine author in the group, who wrote rather than collected.

The retellings here keep the shape of each tale and soften the language, so a five-year-old can follow a story a nine-year-old still finds satisfying.

Three smaller shelves inside this theme

Classic Tales splits into three narrower pages, and most evenings one of them is a better starting point than the whole set.

Aesop's Fables holds 42 short animal stories, each ending in a line you can talk about for thirty seconds and then put the light out. Nursery Rhymes holds 22 tales that grew out of the rhymes and chants children learn before they can read, such as The Gingerbread Man and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Rhyming Stories & Poems holds 23 told in verse, where the beat does half the reading for you.

If you want the collectors rather than the themes, the Brothers Grimm collection and Folk Tales from Around the World group the same stories by where they came from.

Choosing a first classic for a child who has not met one

Start short and familiar. Goldilocks and The Three Bears takes four minutes, has three of everything, and ends with an apology rather than a punishment, which makes it a kind introduction for a three-year-old.

From there, Little Red Riding Hood at five minutes is the first tale with real jeopardy in it, and children usually want it again immediately. Jack and the Beanstalk suits the child who likes climbing and bargaining more than princesses.

Save the longer ones until a weekend. Hansel and Gretel runs eight minutes and is written for ages six to ten; The Tale of Tom Thumb runs eleven. Neither works well when a child is already rubbing their eyes.

The frightening parts, and what to do with them

Old tales contain wolves, witches and abandoned children, and that is not an accident. The fear is the point: the story makes a danger small enough to hold, then closes it. Most children handle that well, and a few do not.

If yours is one of the few, read The Ugly Duckling or The Elves and the Shoemaker, both gentle from start to finish, and leave the wolves a year. Our guide on fairy tales and fear goes into when a scary story helps and when to stop. For the history behind the whole tradition, see the history of fairy tales and who the Brothers Grimm were.

It also helps to know that a tale can be read in a flat, calm voice or a theatrical one, and the same words land completely differently. Slow down at the dark bit and speed up at the rescue.

Reading a tale you only half-remember

Most adults carry a version of these stories that is part book, part film and part playground. Then you open one and the details are wrong. That is normal, and it is not a fault in the retelling: these tales have always existed in several shapes at once.

Two Cinderellas, two Snow Whites

The site has both The Magical Tale of Cinderella, six minutes and brisk, and a longer Cinderella of ten. It also has Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for ages five to eight and a slightly softer Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for four to eight. Reading two versions a fortnight apart is one of the few genuinely interesting things you can do with a classic, because children notice every difference and will tell you which one is correct.

For the same reason, a joke version can be worth having. Goldilocks and the FOUR Bears! only works once a child knows the original, and then it works enormously.

The three branches of Classic Tales at a glance
BranchStoriesRead-aloud timeBest for
Aesop's Fables424-10 minutesA whole story plus its lesson in one sitting
Nursery Rhymes12About 1 minuteActual verses for ages one to three
Rhyming Stories & Poems234-11 minutesReading aloud with a beat to lean on

The themes inside classic tales

Aesop's Fables 42 stories

Short animal tales with a moral at the end, two and a half thousand years old

All aesop's fables stories

Nursery Rhymes 34 stories

The oldest bedtime words of all, with their stories and their history

All nursery rhymes stories

Rhyming Stories & Poems 23 stories

Stories with a beat: verse that carries a listener to the end

All rhyming stories & poems stories

Every classic tales story, A to Z

  1. Aladdin and the Magic Lamp16 min · Ages 5–8
  2. Beauty and the Beast14 min · Ages 4–8
  3. Chicken Licken8 min · Ages 4–8
  4. Dapplegrim4 min · Ages 4–8
  5. Goldilocks and The Three Bears4 min · Ages 3–7
  6. Hansel and Gretel21 min · Ages 6–10
  7. Henny Penny8 min · Ages 3–7
  8. Jimmy Scarecrow’s Christmas5 min · Ages 3–7
  9. Lily and the Lion5 min · Ages 4–8
  10. Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe7 min · Ages 4–8
  11. Little Red Riding Hood13 min · Ages 4–8
  12. Long, Broad and Sharpsight7 min · Ages 6–10
  13. Old Sultan12 min · Ages 6–10
  14. Prince Darling13 min · Ages 4–8
  15. Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess14 min · Ages 4–8
  16. Princess Hase, a Story of Old Japan8 min · Ages 4–8
  17. Rapunzel21 min · Ages 5–12
  18. Riquet With The Tuft9 min · Ages 4–8
  19. Rumpelstiltskin18 min · Ages 6–10
  20. Snow White and Rose Red7 min · Ages 4–8
  21. Sunshine Stories10 min · Ages 3–7
  22. The Ant and the Grasshopper6 min · Ages 4–8
  23. The Ass and His Shadows8 min · Ages 3–7
  24. The Ass and the Lapdog6 min · Ages 5–8
  25. The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion6 min · Ages 4–8
  26. The Astrologer Who Fell into a Well6 min · Ages 3–7
  27. The Bald Man and the Fly6 min · Ages 3–7
  28. The Bear and the Two Travelers9 min · Ages 4–8
  29. The Bird with Nine Heads7 min · Ages 6–10
  30. The Birdcatcher, the Partridge, and the Cock7 min · Ages 6–10
  31. The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat8 min · Ages 3–7
  32. The Blacksmith and His Dog7 min · Ages 4–8
  33. The Blue Bird20 min · Ages 6–10
  34. The Bow and the Lyre4 min · Ages 3–7
  35. The Boy Who Cried Wolf6 min · Ages 4–8
  36. The Bull and the Goat6 min · Ages 3–7
  37. The Bundle of Sticks7 min · Ages 3–7
  38. The Cat and the Mice6 min · Ages 3–7
  39. The Cat and the Old Rat11 min · Ages 4–8
  40. The City Mouse and the Country Mouse8 min · Ages 3–7
  41. The Clown and the Countryman6 min · Ages 3–7
  42. The Cobbler Turned Doctor6 min · Ages 5–8
  43. The Cock and the Jewel8 min · Ages 4–8
  44. The Crow and the Pitcher4 min · Ages 3–7
  45. The Crow and the Swan7 min · Ages 4–8
  46. The Devoted Friend6 min · Ages 4–8
  47. The Dog and the Cook5 min · Ages 3–7
  48. The Dog and the Oyster4 min · Ages 4–8
  49. The Dog and the Shadow5 min · Ages 3–5
  50. The Dog in the Manger10 min · Ages 4–8
  51. The Dolphins, the Whales, and the Sprat5 min · Ages 5–8
  52. The Dragon of the North8 min · Ages 5–8
  53. The Dragon Tamers7 min · Ages 4–8
  54. The Eagle and the Arrow6 min · Ages 4–8
  55. The Elder Tree Mother6 min · Ages 4–8
  56. The Elves and the Shoemaker10 min · Ages 3–7
  57. The Emperor’s New Clothes4 min · Ages 4–8
  58. The Enchanted Pig8 min · Ages 4–8
  59. The Farmer and His Sons7 min · Ages 5–8
  60. The Farmer and the Cranes5 min · Ages 3–7
  61. The Farmer and the Fox4 min · Ages 3–7
  62. The Farmer and the Snake6 min · Ages 3–7
  63. The Farmer and the Stork5 min · Ages 3–7
  64. The Fighting Bulls and the Frog6 min · Ages 4–8
  65. The Fly and the Draught-Mule7 min · Ages 3–7
  66. The Fox and the Crow5 min · Ages 4–8
  67. The Fox and the Goat9 min · Ages 4–8
  68. The Fox and the Grapes6 min · Ages 4–8
  69. The Fox and the Leopard7 min · Ages 4–8
  70. The Fox and the Monkey6 min · Ages 4–8
  71. The Fox and the Pheasants5 min · Ages 4–8
  72. The Fox and the Stork7 min · Ages 3–7
  73. The Fox Without a Tail4 min · Ages 4–8
  74. The Frog and the Ox7 min · Ages 3–7
  75. The Frog Prince9 min · Ages 4–8
  76. The Giant Who Had No Heart In His Body8 min · Ages 4–8
  77. The Gingerbread Man7 min · Ages 3–7
  78. The Goat and the Vine6 min · Ages 3–7
  79. The Golden Goose13 min · Ages 4–8
  80. The Goose Girl19 min · Ages 6–10
  81. The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs6 min · Ages 3–7
  82. The Grasshopper and the Ants4 min · Ages 3–7
  83. The Happy Prince16 min · Ages 6–10
  84. The Hare and the Tortoise6 min · Ages 3–7
  85. The Hare with Many Friends7 min · Ages 3–7
  86. The Heifer and the Ox6 min · Ages 3–7
  87. The Heron5 min · Ages 3–7
  88. The Horse and the Groom7 min · Ages 4–8
  89. The Lad Who Went to the North Wind10 min · Ages 6–10
  90. The Lark and Her Young Ones8 min · Ages 4–8
  91. The Light Princess7 min · Ages 5–8
  92. The Lion and the Boar7 min · Ages 4–8
  93. The Lion and the Fox8 min · Ages 5–8
  94. The Lion and the Mouse8 min · Ages 3–7
  95. The Lion and the Statue8 min · Ages 5–8
  96. The Lion and the Three Bulls7 min · Ages 4–8
  97. The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox6 min · Ages 4–8
  98. The Lion, the Fox, and the Beasts10 min · Ages 5–8
  99. The Little Match Girl13 min · Ages 4–8
  100. The Little Mermaid16 min · Ages 6–10
  101. The Magic Fishbone6 min · Ages 5–8
  102. The Man and His Two Wives6 min · Ages 6–10
  103. The Man and the Wooden God6 min · Ages 6–10
  104. The Man Who Made The Trees Blossom5 min · Ages 4–8
  105. The Mice in Council4 min · Ages 4–8
  106. The Milkmaid and Her Pail6 min · Ages 4–8
  107. The Miraculous Pitcher7 min · Ages 4–8
  108. The Mischievous Dog6 min · Ages 3–7
  109. The Monkey and the Camel6 min · Ages 4–8
  110. The Monkey as King8 min · Ages 5–8
  111. The Mouse, the Frog, and the Hawk10 min · Ages 5–8
  112. The Musicians of Bremen13 min · Ages 4–8
  113. The Nightingale11 min · Ages 8–12
  114. The North Wind and the Sun4 min · Ages 3–7
  115. The Nurse and the Wolf6 min · Ages 4–8
  116. The Oak and the Reeds6 min · Ages 4–8
  117. The Old Hound10 min · Ages 6–10
  118. The Old Lion and the Fox9 min · Ages 4–8
  119. The Old Man and Death8 min · Ages 5–8
  120. The Old Woman and the Doctor6 min · Ages 3–7
  121. The One-Eyed Doe8 min · Ages 3–7
  122. The Ox and the Frog6 min · Ages 3–7
  123. The Pea Blossom6 min · Ages 4–8
  124. The Peacock and the Crane7 min · Ages 6–10
  125. The Peacock and the Fox6 min · Ages 4–8
  126. The Peasant and the Apple Tree5 min · Ages 3–7
  127. The Pied Piper of Hamelin17 min · Ages 6–10
  128. The Pot and the Kettle7 min · Ages 3–7
  129. The Prince and the Goblin7 min · Ages 6–10
  130. The Princess and the Pea6 min · Ages 3–7
  131. The Princess Mayblossom9 min · Ages 3–7
  132. The Pumpkin Giant9 min · Ages 4–8
  133. The Queen Bee8 min · Ages 4–8
  134. The Ratcatcher7 min · Ages 4–8
  135. The Rich Man and the Tanner6 min · Ages 4–8
  136. The Ridiculous Wishes7 min · Ages 4–8
  137. The Rose and the Butterfly7 min · Ages 4–8
  138. The Shepherd and the Lion5 min · Ages 4–8
  139. The Shepherd and the Sea5 min · Ages 3–7
  140. The Six Sillies7 min · Ages 3–7
  141. The Six Swans14 min · Ages 4–8
  142. The Sleeping Beauty In The Wood14 min · Ages 4–8
  143. The Snow Queen8 min · Ages 4–8
  144. The Stag and His Reflection5 min · Ages 4–8
  145. The Stag at the Pool8 min · Ages 3–7
  146. The Stones of Five Colours and the Empress Jokwa8 min · Ages 5–8
  147. The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Flower9 min · Ages 4–8
  148. The Straw, The Coal, and The Bean7 min · Ages 6–10
  149. The Swallow and the Other Birds4 min · Ages 4–8
  150. The Tale of Tom Thumb11 min · Ages 6–10
  151. The Thief and the House-Dog4 min · Ages 4–8
  152. The Thieves and the Cock4 min · Ages 4–8
  153. The Three Billy Goats Gruff7 min · Ages 3–7
  154. The Three Golden Apples5 min · Ages 4–8
  155. The Three Robbers9 min · Ages 4–8
  156. The Tinderbox15 min · Ages 6–10
  157. The Tortoise and the Ducks6 min · Ages 3–7
  158. The Tortoise and the Hare7 min · Ages 3–7
  159. The True History of Little Golden Hood6 min · Ages 4–8
  160. The Twelve Dancing Princesses14 min · Ages 4–8
  161. The Twelve Wild Ducks7 min · Ages 4–8
  162. The Two Frogs5 min · Ages 4–8
  163. The Two Pots6 min · Ages 5–8
  164. The Two Soldiers and the Robber3 min · Ages 3–7
  165. The Ugly Duckling7 min · Ages 3–7
  166. The Vain Jackdaw7 min · Ages 4–8
  167. The Velveteen Rabbit9 min · Ages 4–8
  168. The Wasp and the Snake9 min · Ages 5–8
  169. The White Doe6 min · Ages 4–8
  170. The White Duck5 min · Ages 4–8
  171. The Wild Boar and the Fox9 min · Ages 4–8
  172. The Wild Swans10 min · Ages 6–10
  173. The Wise Girl6 min · Ages 6–10
  174. The Wolf and the Crane7 min · Ages 4–8
  175. The Wolf and the Lamb7 min · Ages 6–10
  176. The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids8 min · Ages 5–8
  177. The Wolf and the Shepherd8 min · Ages 4–8
  178. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing6 min · Ages 5–8
  179. The Yellow Dwarf8 min · Ages 5–8
  180. Thumbelina7 min · Ages 4–8
  181. Tom Tit Tot11 min · Ages 4–8
  182. Why the Sea is Salt6 min · Ages 4–8

Questions parents ask about classic tales stories

What counts as a classic bedtime story?

A tale that was passed on by word of mouth for generations before being written down, such as a Grimm or Perrault fairy tale, an Aesop fable or a folk story. On BedtimeStory.kids that covers 182 stories.

At what age can a child understand fairy tales?

Most children follow a simple fairy tale from about three, starting with repetitive ones like Goldilocks and The Three Bears. Tales with real peril, such as Hansel and Gretel, are written here for ages six to ten.

Are classic fairy tales too frightening for bedtime?

Usually not, because the danger is resolved before the last page and that resolution is what a child remembers. If your child wakes worried, switch to a gentle tale such as The Ugly Duckling and try the darker ones again in a few months.

Which classic story is shortest to read aloud?

Several run about four minutes, including Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Dapplegrim and The Crow and the Pitcher. They are the ones to reach for when bedtime has already overrun.