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54 stories

Fairy stories

Wings, wishes, and the rules of fairyland

Start with A Midsummer Night’s Dream Surprise me
Fairy stories

Fifty-four fairy stories, drawn from Grimm, Perrault, Andersen and folk tales from Norway, Germany and beyond. The shortest read aloud in four minutes; the longest, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, takes eleven.

Fairies in the old tales are not always sweet: they grant wishes with a catch, steal children, and reward the polite. This collection gathers the gentle ones and the tricksy ones, so you can choose the mood tonight calls for.

Where to start with fairy stories

12 of 54 to start with. The full list follows.

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 Ugly Duckling

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

 15 min Ages 4–8 · Magic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Snow White, kind and gentle, lives in a magical forest, adored by all. Her wicked stepmother, the Queen, grows jealous…

 5 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Three Golden Apples

Cedric embarks on a brave adventure into an enchanted forest, seeking three magical golden apples that grant wishes…

 6 min Ages 5–8 · Hardship Hans in Luck

Hans, an orphaned brother, faces hardship under a wicked stepmother. He finds joy with Greta and embarks on a brave…

 6 min Ages 5–8 · Bravery & Courage The Courteous Prince

Prince Leo discovers a mysterious book that reveals a wicked sorcerer has cursed his kingdom, eroding kindness. He…

 6 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Elder Tree Mother

Elara, a curious girl, discovers a hidden door at the base of an ancient Elder Tree in an enchanted forest. This leads…

 6 min Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales The Milkmaid and Her Pail

Mabel, a hardworking young milkmaid, struggles daily with her clumsy pail, spilling milk everywhere. She longs for an…

 6 min Ages 4–8 · Magic The Orchard Sprite of the Forbidden Planet

Tim and Emma journey to Xylophia's forbidden zone, seeking the legendary Orchard Sprite. They face challenges like…

 6 min Ages 6–10 · Classic Tales The Wise Girl

Mira, a kind girl, feels a longing for more than her simple life. A wise woman shares a prophecy that Mira will face a…

 7 min Ages 3–7 · Family Grandmother

Grandmother invites her grandkids on a magical forest adventure. They meet talking trees, playful sprites, and wondrous…

 7 min Ages 6–10 · Magic One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes

Hans and Friedrich, two curious brothers, venture into an enchanted forest whispered to hold many secrets. They…

The promise a fairy story makes

A fairy story tells a child that the world has rules, that the rules can be broken, and that breaking them costs something. That is why children accept three wishes, three brothers and three tasks without blinking: the shape is the reassurance.

It also means these stories carry more risk than the animal fables do. Somebody is usually banished, cursed or eaten. Our guide to the history of fairy tales explains where the darker edges came from, and why the versions on this site sit where they do.

What the fairy in a fairy story is doing

Often there is no fairy at all. The Fairy and The Farmer and the Pixie have one, and in both cases she is a test: be generous to a stranger and the world rearranges itself in your favour. More often the enchantment arrives without an owner, as it does in The Enchanted Pig, and the story is about living with a rule nobody explained.

The famous ones, and the versions used here

Most of the tales a parent can name are in this collection. Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel and The Six Swans are retellings of the Brothers Grimm; The Sleeping Beauty In The Wood and Cinderella come from Charles Perrault; The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen are Hans Christian Andersen.

When the same tale appears twice

Snow White is here in two retellings, one at six minutes and one at seven. They are close cousins, not copies, and reading both in the same week is a genuinely interesting thing to do with a seven year old who thinks stories arrive fixed.

Fifty-four stories, sorted by how much your child can take

For three to seven year olds, start with The Princess and the Pea, The Fair With Golden Hair or The Princess Mayblossom: all gentle in mood, all under eight minutes.

For five to eight, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Frog Prince are the reliable middle. For six to ten, The Straw, The Coal, and The Bean and One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes ask more of a listener and repay it.

The quiet corner

Some fairy tales are almost lullabies. The Elder Tree Mother at five minutes and The Crow Peri at nine are both gentle, and neither has a villain worth worrying about at eleven o'clock.

Reading them in an order that means something

Fairy stories reward being read in clusters. Three Grimm tales in a row, then three Perrault, and a child starts hearing the difference without anyone explaining it — Grimm is blunter, Perrault is more mannered, Andersen is sadder.

If that appeals, the Brothers Grimm collection and the Hans Christian Andersen collection group them by author, and folk tales from around the world shows how far the same shapes travel. East of the Sun and West of the Moon, the Norwegian tale, is the eleven-minute one to save for a weekend.

Every story in fairy stories, A to Z

  1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream11 min · Ages 4–8
  2. Aladdin and the Magic Lamp16 min · Ages 5–8
  3. Beauty and the Beast14 min · Ages 4–8
  4. Bushy Bride9 min · Ages 4–8
  5. Cinderella11 min · Ages 4–8
  6. East of the Sun and West of the Moon11 min · Ages 5–12
  7. Giauna the Beautiful8 min · Ages 4–8
  8. Grandmother7 min · Ages 3–7
  9. Hans in Luck6 min · Ages 5–8
  10. Jack and the Beanstalk14 min · Ages 4–8
  11. One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes7 min · Ages 6–10
  12. Prince Darling13 min · Ages 4–8
  13. Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess14 min · Ages 4–8
  14. Rapunzel21 min · Ages 5–12
  15. Riquet With The Tuft9 min · Ages 4–8
  16. Rose of Evening9 min · Ages 5–8
  17. Rumpelstiltskin18 min · Ages 6–10
  18. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs20 min · Ages 5–8
  19. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves15 min · Ages 4–8
  20. Tamlane10 min · Ages 5–8
  21. The Courteous Prince6 min · Ages 5–8
  22. The Crow Peri10 min · Ages 4–8
  23. The Elder Tree Mother6 min · Ages 4–8
  24. The Enchanted Pig8 min · Ages 4–8
  25. The Fair With Golden Hair10 min · Ages 3–7
  26. The Fairy9 min · Ages 4–8
  27. The Farmer and His Sons7 min · Ages 5–8
  28. The Farmer and the Pixie9 min · Ages 4–8
  29. The Frog Prince9 min · Ages 4–8
  30. The Goose Girl19 min · Ages 6–10
  31. The Light Princess7 min · Ages 5–8
  32. The Little Mermaid16 min · Ages 6–10
  33. The Magical Tale of Cinderella21 min · Ages 4–8
  34. The Master Maid9 min · Ages 4–8
  35. The Milkmaid and Her Pail6 min · Ages 4–8
  36. The Missing Unicorn7 min · Ages 5–8
  37. The Orchard Sprite of the Forbidden Planet6 min · Ages 4–8
  38. The Pied Piper… and BUTTERFLIES!10 min · Ages 5–8
  39. The Princess and the Pea6 min · Ages 3–7
  40. The Princess Mayblossom9 min · Ages 3–7
  41. The Queer Little Baker Man8 min · Ages 4–8
  42. The Six Swans14 min · Ages 4–8
  43. The Sleeping Beauty In The Wood14 min · Ages 4–8
  44. The Snow Queen8 min · Ages 4–8
  45. The Straw, The Coal, and The Bean7 min · Ages 6–10
  46. The Tale of Tom Thumb11 min · Ages 6–10
  47. The Three Golden Apples5 min · Ages 4–8
  48. The Twelve Dancing Princesses14 min · Ages 4–8
  49. The Twelve Wild Ducks7 min · Ages 4–8
  50. The Ugly Duckling7 min · Ages 3–7
  51. The Vain Jackdaw7 min · Ages 4–8
  52. The Wild Swans10 min · Ages 6–10
  53. The Wise Girl6 min · Ages 6–10
  54. Thumbelina7 min · Ages 4–8

Collections that share these stories

Ranked by how many stories they have in common with this one.

Adventure stories 34 shared Animal stories 26 shared Forest and woodland stories 23 shared Stories about big feelings 17 shared Princess stories 12 shared Kings and queens 8 shared Gentle sleepy stories 6 shared Folk tales from around the world 3 shared

Questions about fairy stories

How many fairy stories does BedtimeStory.kids have?

Fifty-four, including retellings of Grimm, Perrault and Andersen alongside folk tales from Norway, Germany, China and elsewhere.

What is the difference between a fairy story and a folk tale?

A fairy story usually contains enchantment — a curse, a wish, a transformation — while a folk tale may have none at all. Many stories are both, which is why several appear in more than one collection here.

Which fairy stories are gentle enough for a nervous child?

The Elder Tree Mother, The Princess Mayblossom and The Fair With Golden Hair are all marked gentle in mood and have no real threat in them.

Why are there two versions of Snow White?

Both are retellings of the same Brothers Grimm tale, told at slightly different lengths and pitched at slightly different ages. Comparing them is a good way to show a child that stories are retold rather than fixed.