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Hardship stories

Hard times, told honestly, with a way through

Start reading Greed Pride
Hardship stories

Hardship gathers 111 stories in which something genuinely goes wrong: hunger, loss, bad luck or a mistake that cannot be taken back. Each one is told honestly and each one offers a way through, which is what makes them safe to read at bedtime.

Fairy tales are not afraid of hard times, and children are better for it. The match girl, the fir tree, the family with nothing but a goose: these stories admit that life can be cold and unfair, and then show a character bearing it with dignity, or finding a way through. That honesty is why they have lasted.

We keep the hard parts honest and the endings hopeful. Some of these tales are for older children, and each shows its suggested age; for the youngest, the theme has gentler stories about a bad day that gets better.

Where to start in hardship

12 of the 111 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…
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…
4 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Crow and the Pitcher

A thirsty crow searches for water on a scorching day. He finds a pitcher, but the water is too low to reach. With a…
4 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Dog and the Oyster

Rex, a curious dog in a quaint seaside village, discovers a glistening oyster on the beach. Intrigued by a faint sound…
4 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Emperor’s New Clothes

The Emperor loves new clothes and is very proud. Two clever weavers promise to make him a magical suit, invisible to…
4 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Farmer and the Fox

Farmer Tom is known for his kindness and bountiful farm. Reynard the sly fox, always looking for an easy meal, spots…
4 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Fox Without a Tail

Fawkes the fox loves playing tricks, but one mischievous prank goes wrong, leaving him injured and full of regret. He…
4 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The Grasshopper and the Ants

Grasshopper loves summer fun, singing and dancing, while the busy ants gather food for colder days. When the rain and…
4 min Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales The North Wind and the Sun

The boastful North Wind challenges the gentle Sun to see who is more powerful. They agree to a contest: make a…
4 min Ages 6–10 · Rhyming Stories & Poems The Raven

Young Edgar sits by the fire when a raven, Quasimodo, arrives with a mysterious message: "Nevermore." Quasimodo shares…
4 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Swallow and the Other Birds

A proud Swallow boasts about his perfect, mud-free nest, believing it superior to all others. When a fierce storm…
4 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Thief and the House-Dog

Rex, a fluffy house dog, lives happily with the kind Johnson family. One night, a cunning thief named Jack targets…

Difficulty on the page, and why it does not frighten children

Parents hesitate over this theme, and then find their children choosing it. The reason is simple: a story about a hard time is a hard time with a shape. It starts, it gets worse, it turns, and it ends while your child is still safely in bed.

That shape is the whole value. A child who has read Hans in Luck, six minutes of losing one thing after another and staying cheerful, has a picture in their head for the day something of theirs breaks. The Crow and the Pitcher does the same for frustration in four minutes flat.

The two ways a character makes it worse

Most hardship in these tales is bad luck. Some of it is self-inflicted, and the stories about that divide neatly into two narrower themes.

Wanting more

Greed holds 40 stories, and the clearest is The Fisherman and His Wife at nine minutes, in which a wish granted again and again ends exactly where it started. The Dog in the Manger, ten minutes, is the gentler version for younger listeners.

Thinking too much of yourself

Pride also holds 40. The Emperor’s New Clothes, adapted from Hans Christian Andersen, is three minutes, funny, and the only story on this site where the child is the one who is right. The Eagle and the Arrow is six minutes and considerably sharper.

Endings that do not tidy everything away

A handful of these tales stop short of a neat finish, and they are the ones worth choosing deliberately rather than by accident.

The Fir Tree, five minutes and adapted from Andersen, is about wishing your life away and noticing too late. Pandora’s Box, six minutes, retold from the Greek myth, lets every trouble out into the world and leaves only hope behind.

Both suit an older child who has started to notice that stories usually cheat. Read them when there is time to talk afterwards, not at the very end of a long evening. There is background on the man who wrote several of them in Hans Christian Andersen’s life and stories.

What to read when the hard thing is real

If your family is actually in the middle of something, pick a story where the difficulty is nearby but not identical. Too close and a child shuts down; too far and it does not land.

Cinderella, ten minutes, is about being treated badly at home by people who should not, and ends in complete vindication. The Baba Yaga, ten minutes, sends a child into the worst place imaginable and brings her back out. For a much older listener, stories for big kids holds the longer material, and stories about feelings sorts the same tales by what the child is carrying.

Bad luck played for laughs

Not every hard time is told solemnly. A whole strand of this theme takes a disaster and makes it ridiculous, and for some children that is the only version they can take.

Three that treat trouble as a joke

These are the ones to reach for when the day has been miserable and nobody has the appetite for anything sincere. Laughing at a fictional disaster is a perfectly respectable way of putting down a real one.

None of this is a way of avoiding the subject. A child who has laughed at The Ass and His Shadows, eight minutes about two men arguing over nothing at all, is better placed to notice the same thing in the playground than one who has been told not to squabble.

A worry, and a story that meets it
The hard thingStoryMinutesHow it turns
Something broke or was lostHans in Luck6He decides it does not matter
Nothing is workingThe Crow and the Pitcher4She thinks of something
Being treated unfairly at homeCinderella10Everything is put right
Never being satisfiedThe Fisherman and His Wife9Back where they started
Wishing life awayThe Fir Tree5Too late, and quietly sad

The themes inside hardship

Greed 40 stories

Wanting more, and what it costs

All greed stories

Pride 40 stories

Boasters, show-offs, and the fall that follows

All pride stories

Every hardship story, A to Z

  1. Chicken Licken8 min · Ages 4–8
  2. Cinderella11 min · Ages 4–8
  3. Goldilocks and the FOUR Bears!8 min · Ages 3–7
  4. Goldilocks and The Three Bears4 min · Ages 3–7
  5. Hans in Luck6 min · Ages 5–8
  6. Hansel and Gretel21 min · Ages 6–10
  7. Mudjee Monedo10 min · Ages 6–10
  8. One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes7 min · Ages 6–10
  9. Pandora’s Box6 min · Ages 6–10
  10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs20 min · Ages 5–8
  11. Son of the Island and the Turtle7 min · Ages 4–8
  12. The Ant and the Grasshopper6 min · Ages 4–8
  13. The Ass and His Shadows8 min · Ages 3–7
  14. The Ass and the Lapdog6 min · Ages 5–8
  15. The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion6 min · Ages 4–8
  16. The Astrologer Who Fell into a Well6 min · Ages 3–7
  17. The Baba Yaga9 min · Ages 5–8
  18. The Bald Man and the Fly6 min · Ages 3–7
  19. The Bear and the Two Travelers9 min · Ages 4–8
  20. The Birdcatcher, the Partridge, and the Cock7 min · Ages 6–10
  21. The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat8 min · Ages 3–7
  22. The Boy Who Cried Wolf6 min · Ages 4–8
  23. The Bundle of Sticks7 min · Ages 3–7
  24. The Cat and the Mice6 min · Ages 3–7
  25. The Cat and the Old Rat11 min · Ages 4–8
  26. The City Mouse and the Country Mouse8 min · Ages 3–7
  27. The Clown and the Countryman6 min · Ages 3–7
  28. The Crow and the Pitcher4 min · Ages 3–7
  29. The Crow and the Swan7 min · Ages 4–8
  30. The Dog and the Cook5 min · Ages 3–7
  31. The Dog and the Oyster4 min · Ages 4–8
  32. The Dog and the Shadow5 min · Ages 3–5
  33. The Dog in the Manger10 min · Ages 4–8
  34. The Dolphins, the Whales, and the Sprat5 min · Ages 5–8
  35. The Eagle and the Arrow6 min · Ages 4–8
  36. The Emperor’s New Clothes4 min · Ages 4–8
  37. The Farmer and the Cranes5 min · Ages 3–7
  38. The Farmer and the Fox4 min · Ages 3–7
  39. The Farmer and the Snake6 min · Ages 3–7
  40. The Farmer and the Stork5 min · Ages 3–7
  41. The Fighting Bulls and the Frog6 min · Ages 4–8
  42. The Fir Tree5 min · Ages 3–7
  43. The Fisherman and His Wife9 min · Ages 6–10
  44. The Fly and the Draught-Mule7 min · Ages 3–7
  45. The Fox and the Crow5 min · Ages 4–8
  46. The Fox and the Goat9 min · Ages 4–8
  47. The Fox and the Grapes6 min · Ages 4–8
  48. The Fox and the Leopard7 min · Ages 4–8
  49. The Fox and the Pheasants5 min · Ages 4–8
  50. The Fox and the Stork7 min · Ages 3–7
  51. The Fox Without a Tail4 min · Ages 4–8
  52. The Frog and the Ox7 min · Ages 3–7
  53. The Giant Who Had No Heart In His Body8 min · Ages 4–8
  54. The Gingerbread Man7 min · Ages 3–7
  55. The Goat and the Vine6 min · Ages 3–7
  56. The Golden Beetle8 min · Ages 4–8
  57. The Golden Nugget8 min · Ages 6–10
  58. The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs6 min · Ages 3–7
  59. The Grasshopper and the Ants4 min · Ages 3–7
  60. The Hare and the Tortoise6 min · Ages 3–7
  61. The Hare with Many Friends7 min · Ages 3–7
  62. The Heron5 min · Ages 3–7
  63. The Kingdom of the Ogres8 min · Ages 4–8
  64. The Lion and the Fox8 min · Ages 5–8
  65. The Lion and the Three Bulls7 min · Ages 4–8
  66. The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox6 min · Ages 4–8
  67. The Lion, the Fox, and the Beasts10 min · Ages 5–8
  68. The Little Match Girl13 min · Ages 4–8
  69. The Man and His Two Wives6 min · Ages 6–10
  70. The Man and the Wooden God6 min · Ages 6–10
  71. The Milkmaid and Her Pail6 min · Ages 4–8
  72. The Mischievous Dog6 min · Ages 3–7
  73. The Monkey and the Camel6 min · Ages 4–8
  74. The Mouse, the Frog, and the Hawk10 min · Ages 5–8
  75. The North Wind and the Sun4 min · Ages 3–7
  76. The Nurse and the Wolf6 min · Ages 4–8
  77. The Oak and the Reeds6 min · Ages 4–8
  78. The Old Hound10 min · Ages 6–10
  79. The Old Lion and the Fox9 min · Ages 4–8
  80. The Old Man and Death8 min · Ages 5–8
  81. The Old Witch7 min · Ages 4–8
  82. The Old Woman and the Doctor6 min · Ages 3–7
  83. The One-Eyed Doe8 min · Ages 3–7
  84. The Ox and the Frog6 min · Ages 3–7
  85. The Peacock and the Fox6 min · Ages 4–8
  86. The Pied Piper of Hamelin17 min · Ages 6–10
  87. The Pied Piper… and BUTTERFLIES!10 min · Ages 5–8
  88. The Pot and the Kettle7 min · Ages 3–7
  89. The Ratcatcher7 min · Ages 4–8
  90. The Raven4 min · Ages 6–10
  91. The Rich Man and the Tanner6 min · Ages 4–8
  92. The Selfish Giant14 min · Ages 4–8
  93. The Shepherd and the Lion5 min · Ages 4–8
  94. The Shepherd and the Sea5 min · Ages 3–7
  95. The Six Sillies7 min · Ages 3–7
  96. The Swallow and the Other Birds4 min · Ages 4–8
  97. The Tale of Tom Thumb11 min · Ages 6–10
  98. The Thief and the House-Dog4 min · Ages 4–8
  99. The Thieves and the Cock4 min · Ages 4–8
  100. The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse8 min · Ages 4–8
  101. The Troll Wedding7 min · Ages 4–8
  102. The Two Frogs5 min · Ages 4–8
  103. The Two Pots6 min · Ages 5–8
  104. The Wasp and the Snake9 min · Ages 5–8
  105. The White Doe6 min · Ages 4–8
  106. The Wild Boar and the Fox9 min · Ages 4–8
  107. The Wolf and the Crane7 min · Ages 4–8
  108. The Wolf and the Lamb7 min · Ages 6–10
  109. The Wolf and the Shepherd8 min · Ages 4–8
  110. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing6 min · Ages 5–8
  111. Why the Sea is Salt6 min · Ages 4–8

Questions parents ask about hardship stories

Should children read sad stories at bedtime?

A sad story a child can finish is usually settling rather than upsetting, because the feeling has a beginning and an end. Leave time to talk afterwards if the ending is an unhappy one, such as The Fir Tree.

What story helps a child who has lost something they loved?

Hans in Luck, about six minutes, follows a man who loses everything he owns and stays content, and it gives a child a way to think about it without being told how to feel.

Which stories are about greed?

The Fisherman and His Wife and The Dog in the Manger are the clearest on BedtimeStory.kids. There are 40 in total in the Greed theme.

How short is The Emperor's New Clothes?

About three minutes read aloud, which makes it the shortest story in this theme. It is written for ages four to eight and is genuinely funny.