166 stories
Stories about big feelings
Sad, scared, jealous, cross: stories that name the feeling and let it pass

One hundred and sixty-six stories here name a difficult feeling and let it pass: fear, jealousy, sadness, shame and anger. Most run five to ten minutes and suit ages 3–10.
A story is the safest place to meet a big feeling. These tales are about being scared of the dark, jealous of a new baby, lonely in a new place, or simply cross, and about what helped.
Where to start with stories about big feelings
12 of 166 to start with. The full list follows.
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 Ugly Duckling
A mother duck hatches a clutch of ducklings, but one egg is unusually large. When it hatches, the grey, scruffy…
9 min
Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales
The Velveteen Rabbit
Velveteen Rabbit, a well-loved toy, dreams of becoming real through a child's affection. Guided by the wise Skin Horse…
3 min
Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales
The Two Soldiers and the Robber
Tomas and Juan, two brave soldiers, are returning to camp when they encounter a fearsome robber in a dark forest…
4 min
Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales
The Bow and the Lyre
In a lush forest, an abandoned silver bow and golden lyre yearn for purpose. A wise old owl encourages them to join…
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 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 4–8 · Classic Tales
The Mice in Council
Master Mouser calls a council of mice, sparking curiosity throughout their quaint village. As winter approaches, the…
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…
Finding the story that matches tonight’s feeling
This is the collection parents come to with a specific problem rather than a spare twenty minutes. The stories are grouped here by the feeling they handle, because that is how the question arrives.
Worry and fear
The Anxious Leaf is the most direct, five minutes for ages 3–7, and it says plainly that being frightened is allowed and temporary. Chicken Licken at nine minutes does the same job through comedy: the sky is not falling, and everyone panicked for nothing.
Feeling left out or less than
The Ass and the Lapdog is six minutes about watching someone else be favoured. The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat at seven minutes is about not fitting into either group, which is a specific and painful feeling a seven-year-old can usually name. My Own Self runs ten minutes on the same ground more gently.
Sadness and hard times
A Little Princess is eleven minutes, ages 6–10, retold from Frances Hodgson Burnett, and it is the site's most sustained story about keeping going when everything has got worse. Pandora’s Box at six minutes ends on the fact that hope was in the box too.
Stories that admit things are hard
The reason these work is not that they teach a lesson. It is that they say the difficult thing out loud in someone else's voice, which is much easier for a child to accept than a conversation that starts "I noticed you seemed upset today".
The Butterfly at five minutes is the best example: it is about change being frightening and worth doing anyway, and it never once addresses the child. Riquet With The Tuft at seven minutes takes on how you look and what that is worth. The Blue Bird, nine minutes for ages 6–10, is about looking everywhere for happiness and finding it at home.
Say nothing at the end. If your child wants to connect it to their own day, they will, and our guide to how stories teach empathy explains why the indirect route does more than the direct one.
When a feelings story is the wrong choice
Three evenings to avoid
Three situations where you should pick something else. When the feeling is still raw, an hour after the argument, a story about jealousy reads as a telling-off. When your child is overtired, anything that asks for reflection makes bedtime longer. And when they have asked for something funny, give them something funny.
In all three cases take a short, undemanding story from gentle sleepy stories or a loud one from funny bedtime stories, and come back to this page tomorrow, when it is not about anything.
When the problem is not a story problem
If the worry is about the dark, about monsters or about the story itself, fairy tales and fear is the more useful page. For a child who keeps asking about one particular story, reading the same story every night explains what that repetition is doing.
Short ones for a night with no time
A hundred and sixty-six stories is too many to browse at bedtime, so these are the ones to remember. The Bow and the Lyre is three minutes on differences being the point. Goldilocks and The Three Bears at four minutes is quietly about apologising. Lily and the Lion and The Boy Who Cried Wolf both run five.
For anything longer, 10-minute bedtime stories gathers the full-length options, and kindness stories sits next door with a warmer version of much the same material.
Every story in stories about big feelings, A to Z
- A Little Princess
- Babiole
- Beauty and the Beast
- Bushy Bride
- Chicken Licken
- Goldilocks and The Three Bears
- Goody Two Shoes
- Gubbon Seer
- Hey Diddle Diddle, Little Red Hen
- How Molo Stole the Lovely Rose-Red
- Jimmy Scarecrow’s Christmas
- Lily and the Lion
- Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe
- Little Ida’s Flowers
- Little Red Hen
- Mudjee Monedo
- My Own Self
- Old Sultan
- Pandora’s Box
- Princess Kwan-Yin
- Rabbit’s Eyes
- Riquet With The Tuft
- Rumpelstiltskin
- Starlit Quest for the Cosmic Petal
- Sunbeam's Journey to the Ice Planet's Heart
- The Anxious Leaf
- The Ass and His Shadows
- The Ass and the Lapdog
- The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion
- The Astrologer Who Fell into a Well
- The Bear and the Two Travelers
- The Birdcatcher, the Partridge, and the Cock
- The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat
- The Blacksmith and His Dog
- The Blue Bird
- The Bow and the Lyre
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
- The Bull and the Goat
- The Butterfly
- The Cat and the Old Rat
- The Cat Who Could Eat So Much
- The Clown and the Countryman
- The Cobbler Turned Doctor
- The Cock and the Jewel
- The Crow Peri
- The Daughter of the Mother in the Corner
- The Devoted Friend
- The Dog and the Cook
- The Dog and the Shadow
- The Dog in the Manger
- The Dolphins, the Whales, and the Sprat
- The Dragon of the North
- The Eagle and the Arrow
- The Elder Tree Mother
- The Emperor’s New Clothes
- The Enchanted Pig
- The Faithless Parrot
- The Farmer and His Sons
- The Farmer and the Snake
- The Fiery Dragon
- The Fir Tree
- The Fisherman and His Wife
- The Fly and the Draught-Mule
- The Forgotten Tales of the Meteor Witch
- The Four Wishes
- The Fox and the Crow
- The Fox and the Goat
- The Fox and the Grapes
- The Fox and the Leopard
- The Fox and the Monkey
- The Fox and the Pheasants
- The Fox Without a Tail
- The Frog and the Ox
- The Giant Who Had No Heart In His Body
- The Goat and the Vine
- The Golden Beetle
- The Golden Goose
- The Golden Nugget
- The Golden Touch of King Midas
- The Grasshopper and the Ants
- The Happy Prince
- The Hare and the Tortoise
- The Hare with Many Friends
- The Heifer and the Ox
- The Horse and the Groom
- The Kingdom of the Ogres
- The Lark and Her Young Ones
- The Light Princess
- The Lion and the Boar
- The Lion and the Fox
- The Lion and the Statue
- The Lion and the Three Bulls
- The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox
- The Little Good Mouse
- The Little Match Girl
- The Little Mermaid
- The Little Weed
- The Lost Melody of the Nebula Brook
- The Magic Fishbone
- The Man and His Two Wives
- The Man and the Wooden God
- The Man Who Made The Trees Blossom
- The Master Maid
- The Mice in Council
- The Milkmaid and Her Pail
- The Miraculous Pitcher
- The Mischievous Dog
- The Monkey and the Camel
- The Monkey as King
- The Monkey’s Heart
- The Mouse, the Frog, and the Hawk
- The Nightingale
- The Nurse and the Wolf
- The Oak and the Reeds
- The Old Hound
- The Old Lion and the Fox
- The Old Man and Death
- The Old Man and His Grandson
- The Old Witch
- The Old Woman and the Doctor
- The One-Eyed Doe
- The Ox and the Frog
- The Pea Blossom
- The Peacock and the Crane
- The Peacock and the Fox
- The Peasant and the Apple Tree
- The Picky Prince, the Princess and the Peanut
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin
- The Pot and the Kettle
- The Princess Who Wasn’t
- The Pumpkin Giant
- The Queer Little Baker Man
- The Ratcatcher
- The Raven
- The Rich Man and the Tanner
- The Ridiculous Wishes
- The Rose and the Butterfly
- The Sapphire Crown of the Desert Moon
- The Selfish Giant
- The Shepherd and the Lion
- The Shepherd and the Sea
- The Six Sillies
- The Snow Queen
- The Stag and His Reflection
- The Stag at the Pool
- The Straw, The Coal, and The Bean
- The Swallow and the Other Birds
- The Thief and the House-Dog
- The Tinderbox
- The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
- The Troll Wedding
- The Two Frogs
- The Two Pots
- The Two Soldiers and the Robber
- The Ugly Duckling
- The Vain Jackdaw
- The Velveteen Rabbit
- The Wasp and the Snake
- The Water Lily and The Gold-Spinners
- The Weeds
- The Wild Boar and the Fox
- The Wolf and the Shepherd
- The Yellow Dwarf
- Together We Are Good: The Day the Little Helpers Saved the Town
- Why The Animals No Longer Fear The Sheep
- Why The Autumn Leaves Are Red
Collections that share these stories
Ranked by how many stories they have in common with this one.
Questions about stories about big feelings
What should I read to a child who is anxious?
The Anxious Leaf, five minutes for ages 3–7, is the most direct. Chicken Licken handles the same worry through comedy in about nine minutes.
How many stories about feelings are on this site?
One hundred and sixty-six, covering fear, jealousy, sadness, shame and anger, for ages 3 to 10.
Should I explain the lesson at the end of the story?
Usually not. Children connect a story to their own day in their own time, and an explanation at the end tends to turn the story into a telling-off.
Is there a story about feeling left out?
The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat, seven minutes, is about belonging to neither group. The Ass and the Lapdog covers watching someone else be favoured.
Can I read one of these straight after an argument?
Better not. An hour after the event a story about the same feeling reads as a lecture. Read something gentle tonight and come back to it another day.