Bear stories

The Lion, the Fox, and the Beasts runs to about eight minutes and is listed for ages five to eight. A lion, a fox and an assortment of larger animals — the bear among them — end up having to work out who is actually helping whom. It is marked adventurous rather than gentle, and its point is that courage comes more easily in company.

When it works best

It is a middle-of-the-evening story rather than a last one: there is enough going on to wake a child up slightly, and enough characters that a four year old may lose the thread. For five to eight, read it once and then ask which animal they would rather have been.

A bear collection of one is thin, but bears turn up all over BedtimeStory.kids without being filed here.

Goldilocks and The Three Bears is the obvious one: four minutes, gentle, listed for three to seven, and the bears are more put out than fierce. Goldilocks and the FOUR Bears! is the eight-minute variation and is funnier if your child already knows the original by heart.

The Bear and the Two Travelers is the sharp one: two friends meet a bear, and only one of them behaves like a friend. The Great White Bear and the Trolls gives you a heroic bear instead, and Snow White and Rose Red, retold from the Brothers Grimm, has the gentlest bear of the lot sitting by the fire.

A bear is the easiest big animal to do at bedtime, because a bear voice can be low and slow without being threatening — closer to a grumble than a roar. That is why Goldilocks survives being read to two year olds who would be alarmed by a wolf. Three bears with three different pitches is also the simplest voice exercise there is, and children will take the small one off you if you ask.

If your child wants more large, friendly creatures, giants, trolls and ogres and animal stories are the two places to go next, and our guide to character voices for bedtime stories covers how to do a big voice without undoing the bedtime.