Brothers and sisters stories

Most fairy tales give the hero a sibling and then forget about them. These nine do not. In every one, the second child is the reason the first one survives, or the reason the plot happens at all, which makes them useful stories for a house with more than one child in it.

Siblings who rescue each other

Hansel and Gretel is the famous one, eight minutes for ages 6–10, and it is Gretel who does the deciding at the end. The Six Swans and The Wild Swans tell close versions of the same story, a sister working in silence to break a spell on her brothers: five minutes for ages 4–8 and nine minutes for ages 6–10 respectively. Snow White and Rose Red is the gentlest rescue of the group, seven minutes for ages 4–8, with two sisters who never once fall out.

Siblings who fall out first

The Golden Goose is six minutes about a youngest brother who is laughed at and then forgives it, and it is the one to reach for after a bad afternoon. Three Feathers runs ten minutes for ages 6–10 on the same shape at greater length. The Queen Bee gives eight minutes in which the kind brother succeeds where the clever ones fail.

The age gap problem

The practical problem with siblings is rarely the story, it is the audience. Two children of different ages want different lengths, and the younger one usually wins because they melt down first. Two approaches work. Either pick one story in the middle of both ranges, or read a short one for the younger child and let the older one stay up ten extra minutes for something longer.

The one that works for both

Of these nine, Snow White and Rose Red is the best shared read for a four-year-old and an eight-year-old together: the younger follows the bear and the flowers, the older follows the enchantment. Our guide to bedtime stories for two children goes through the staggered-bedtime version in more detail.

If you are opening this collection for the first time, start with Seven At One Blow, seven minutes for ages 5–8. It is the lightest of the nine and the most obviously enjoyable, and it does not ask anybody to think about how they treat their brother. Save Hansel and Gretel for a child who is comfortably six, because the abandonment at the start is real and is not softened away.

Four of these nine are Grimm retellings, so Brothers Grimm tales is the natural next page. For the wider family shelf, try family stories, and for what stories do to a child’s understanding of other people, read how stories teach empathy.