Kings and queens

Children expect a king to be the good outcome. These stories mostly disagree. The Golden Touch of King Midas, retold from the Greek myth, gives a man exactly what he asks for and ruins him with it. The Fisherman and His Wife does the same in nine minutes, one wish at a time, and is the best argument against wanting more that a six year old will ever sit through.

Both stories work because a child already suspects that wanting more is a trap, and neither says so out loud. The king does the demonstrating.

The Happy Prince, adapted from Oscar Wilde, goes the other way: a gilded statue gives itself away piece by piece. It is five gentle minutes and it will make somebody in the room go quiet.

The Emperor's New Clothes is three minutes, adapted from Hans Christian Andersen, marked funny, and it is the single best story on this site for a child who is starting to notice that grown-ups sometimes pretend. Read it and then say nothing.

Comic on a smaller scale

It is also the shortest story in this collection by some way, which makes it a rare thing: a genuinely clever tale that fits into the three minutes you have left.

The Picky Prince, the Princess and the Peanut is five minutes for a three to seven year old and plays the fussy royal for laughs. Puss in Boots is a con trick carried out on a king by a cat, and everybody knows it.

Not every ruler here is foolish. The Courteous Prince and Prince Darling are both about learning to behave when nobody is making you. The Blue Bird, adapted from Maeterlinck, is nine gentle minutes about looking for happiness in the wrong places, and suits six to ten.

When the person with no power is the hero

For an older child who has started to notice that life is not evenly handed out, Rumpelstiltskin and The Stones of Five Colours and the Empress Jokwa both put the person with no power in the position of having to bargain. The how stories teach empathy guide covers what to do with the conversation that follows.

A good half of this collection also appears under princess stories, which come at the same castles from the other end. If greed is the thread your child is pulling, greed stories collects the lot, and pride stories covers the rulers who fall for flattery.

For an eight to ten year old ready for something with more weight, the big kids page is the place to browse. And if you want the thrones without the morals, The Velvet Paw and the Throne of Stars and The White Duck are five minutes each and simply get on with the adventure.