Bedtime Stories for Children

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language. The story is a 19th-century British fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of a badly-behaved old woman who enters the forest home of three bachelor bears whilst they are away. She sits in their chairs, eats some of their porridge, and sleeps in one of their be...

“Chicken Little” is a European folk tale with a moral in the form of a cumulative tale about a chicken who believes that the world is coming to an end. The phrase "The sky is falling!" features prominently in the story, and has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent. Similar stories go back more than 25 centuries. The...

"The Princess and the Pea" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a young woman whose royal identity is established by a test of her sensitivity. The tale was first published by Andersen in 1835. Andersen had heard the story as a child, and it likely has its source in folk material, possibly originating from Sweden, as it is unknown in the Danish oral tradition. Neither "The Pri...

"The Elves and The Shoemaker" is based on a set of fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm about a poor shoemaker who receives much-needed assistance from helpful elves. The original story is the first of three fairy tales contained in the German Grimm's Fairy Tales under the common title "Die Wichtelmänner" Copyright 2024 Steve Adams Bedtime Stories for Children is produced by Magic Monorail

"The Golden Goose" is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. The Brothers Grimm were academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the first and best-known collectors of German (and European) folk tales, and popularized traditional oral tale types such as "Cinderella", "The Fro...

"Rumpelstiltskin" is based on German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales. The story is about a fairy who spins straw into gold in exchange for the Queen’s firstborn. The same story pattern appears in numerous other cultures including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scotland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, South America, Hungary,...

“The Gingerbread Man” was adapted from a folktale about a gingerbread man's escape from various pursuers until his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. "The Gingerbread Boy" first appeared in print in the May, 1875, issue of St. Nicholas Magazine in a cumulative tale which, like "The Little Red Hen", depends on repetitious scenes featuring an ever-growing cast of characters for its effect.

"How the Leopard got his spots" was adapted from a classic children's story Copyright 2024 Steve Adams Bedtime Stories for Children is produced by Magic Monorail

"Sleeping Beauty" or "Little Briar Rose", also titled in English as "The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods", is a classic fairy tale about a princess who is cursed to sleep for a hundred years by an evil fairy, to be awakened by a handsome prince at the end of them. The good fairy, realizing that the princess would be frightened if alone when she awakens, uses her wand to put every living person and an...

Thumbelina is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen first published on December 16, 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the second instalment of “Fairy Tales Told for Children.” Thumbelina is about a tiny girl and her adventures with marriage-minded toads and moles. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size...

"Three Billy Goats Gruff" is adapted from a Norwegian fairytale by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr, first published between 1841 and 1844. It has an "eat-me-when-I'm-fatter" plot. The first version of the story in English appeared in George Webbe Dasent's translation of some of the Norske Folkeeventyr, published as Popular Tales from the Norse in 1859. The her...

"Hansel and Gretel" was adapted from a fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Hansel and Gretel are a brother and sister abandoned in a forest, where they fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread. The cannibalistic witch intends to fatten the children before eventually eating them, but Gretel outwits the witch...

“The Tale of Peter Rabbit” was adapted from the children's book written by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he gets into, and is chased around, the garden of Mr. McGregor. The tale was written for five-year-old Noel Moore, son of Potter's former governess Annie Carter Moore, in 1893. It was revised and privately printed by Potter in 1901 after several p...

“The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is based on a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in September 1904. The book is a sequel to The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), and tells of Peter's return to Mr. McGregor's garden with his cousin Benjamin to retrieve the clothes he lost there during his previous adventure. In Benjamin Bunny, Potter...

“The Tale of the Frog Prince” was adapted from a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Traditionally, it is the first story in their folktale collection Bedtime Stories for Children is produced by Magic Monorail Copyright 2024 Steve Adams

The story of "Pinocchio" was adapted from the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883). Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan village. He was created as a wooden puppet, but he dreams of becoming a real boy. He is notably characterized for his frequent tendency to lie, which causes his nose to grow. Pinocchio is one of the most reimagined characters in children...

The tale of “Rapunzel” was published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. Their source was a story published by Friedrich Schulz in 1790. Earlier variants include "Petrosinella" in 1634, and "Das Mährchen von der Padde" published a few months before Grimm's version. In 2010, Walt Disney Animation Studios adapted the fairy tale into the animated feature film “Tangled”. Bedtime Stories for Children is pro...

"Puss in Boots" was based on an Italian fairy tale from the mid 1600’s, which later spread throughout the rest of Europe, about a cat who uses trickery to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for his penniless master. Puss in Boots has provided inspiration for composers, choreographers, and other artists over the centuries. The cat appears in the third act of Tchaikovsky's ba...

"The Three Little Pigs" is a fable about three pigs who build three houses of different materials. A Big Bad Wolf blows down the first two pigs' houses, made of straw and sticks respectively, but is unable to destroy the third pig's house, made of bricks. Printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story is thought to be much older. The earliest version takes place in Dartmoor with three pixi...

The story of “Little Sammy” was adapted from a children's book written and illustrated by Scottish author Helen Bannerman and published by Grant Richards in October 1899. As one in a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children, the story was popular for more than half a century. Bedtime Stories for Children is produced by Magic Monorail Copyright 2024 Steve Adams

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in July 1908. Potter composed the book at Hill Top, a working farm in the Lake District she bought in 1905. Following the purchase, her works began to focus on country and village life, incorporating large casts of animal characters and sinister villain...

Tom Thumb is one of the eight fairytales published by Charles Perrault. The small boy defeats the ogre. This type of fairytale, in the French oral tradition, is often combined with motifs, similar to Hansel and Gretel; one such tale is The Lost Children. The story was first published in English as Little Poucet in Robert Samber's 1729 translation of Perrault's book, "Histories, or Tales of Past Ti...

“Aesop's Fables” are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a storyteller who lived in ancient Greece. On the arrival of the printing press, collections of Aesop's fables were among the earliest books in a variety of languages. Through the means of later collections, Aesop's reputation as a fabulist was transmitted throughout the world. Initially the fables were addressed to adults and covered...

“The Tale of Tom Kitten” is based on the story written by Beatrix Potter released in September 1907. The tale is about manners and how children react to them. Tabitha Twitchit, a cat, invites friends for tea. She washes and dresses her three kittens for the party, but within moments the kittens have soiled and lost their clothes while scampering about the garden. Tabitha is "affronted". She sends...

“Beauty and the Beast” was adapted from a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740. Her lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 to produce the version most commonly retold. Later, Andrew Lang retold the story in Blue Fairy Book, a part of the Fairy Book series, in 1889. In 1991, Be...