Bedtime Stories for Children
Bedtime Stories for Children
Steve Adams
Short bedtime stories for children to help them fall asleep. Choose between classic fables, fantastic adventures, and the stories that inspired Disney animation. Join us on our journey into a world of imagination. Follow us here for more stories or get notified of new stories on Instagram @MagicMonorail. You can also email new story suggestions to [email protected] "Bedtime Stories" is produced by Magic Monorail Productions
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
“The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” is 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 deepened the rabbit universe she created in Peter Rabbit, and, in doing so, suggested the rabbit world was parallel to the human world but complete and sufficient unto itself. In 1903, Potter and her publisher decided her next book should be less complicated than her previous productions, and in Benjamin Bunny she created a simple, didactic tale for young children. The book's masterful illustrations were based upon the several gardens at the Lake District estate of Fawe Park, where Potter spent the summer of 1903. Benjamin Bunny was an instant commercial and popular success, and thousands of copies were in print by the end of 1904. The Times Literary Supplement thought Potter's illustrations "pencil perfect",but suggested that she engage a literary assistant for future productions. Potter created a nursery wallpaper tapping Benjamin's image, and Benjamin returned as an adult rabbit in the Flopsy Bunnies and Mr. Tod. In 1992, Benjamin Bunny was adapted as an episode of the BBC animated television series, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends.
Jan 12, 2022
7 min
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
“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 publishers' rejections, but was printed in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1902. The book was a success, and multiple reprints were issued in the years immediately following its debut.
Dec 11, 2021
7 min
Hansel and Gretel
"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 and kills her. The two children then escape with their lives and return home with the witch's treasure. Although Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm credited "various tales from Hesse" (the region where they lived) as their source, scholars have argued that the brothers heard the story in 1809 from the family of Wilhelm's friend and future wife, Dortchen Wild, and partly from other sources. A handwritten note in the Grimms' personal copy of the first edition reveals that in 1813 Wild contributed to the children's verse answer to the witch, "The wind, the wind,/ The heavenly child," which rhymes in German: "Der Wind, der Wind,/ Das himmlische Kind." According to folklorist, the tale emerged in the Late Middle Ages Germany. Shortly after this period, close written variants began to appear. Scholars argue that the episode of the paths marked with stones and crumbs, were already found in the France. A house made of confectionery is also found in a 14th-century manuscript about the Land of Cockayne.
Nov 26, 2021
7 min
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
"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 heroes of the tale are three male goats who need to outsmart a ravenous troll to cross the bridge to their feeding ground.
Nov 12, 2021
6 min
Thumbelina
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. Thumbelina is chiefly Andersen's invention, though he did take inspiration from tales of miniature people such as "Tom Thumb". Thumbelina was published as one of a series of seven fairy tales in 1835 which were not well received by the Danish critics who disliked their informal style and their lack of morals. The earliest English translation of Thumbelina is dated 1846. The tale has been adapted to various media including television drama and animated film in 1994.
Oct 20, 2021
7 min
Sleeping Beauty
"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 animal in the palace asleep, to awaken when the princess does.  The earliest known version of the story is found in the narrative Perceforest, composed between 1330 and 1344. The tale was first published by Giambattista Basile in his collection of tales titled The Pentamerone.  Basile's version was later adapted and published by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697. The version that was later collected and printed by the Brothers Grimm was an orally transmitted version of the literary tale published by Perrault.  The Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales classifies "Sleeping Beauty" as being a 410 tale type, meaning it includes a princess who is forced into an enchanted sleep and is later awakened reversing the magic placed upon her. The story has been adapted many times throughout history and has continued to be retold by modern storytellers throughout various media. 
Sep 29, 2021
6 min
How the Leopard got his spots
"How the Leopard got his spots" was adapted from a classic children's story 
Aug 31, 2021
6 min
The Gingerbread Man
“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.
Aug 17, 2021
7 min
Rumpelstiltskin
"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, Japan and France. The Cornish tale of Duffy and the Devil plays out an essentially similar plot featuring a "devil" named Terry-top.
Aug 1, 2021
7 min
The Golden Goose
"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 Frog Prince", "Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Rumpelstiltskin", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Snow White".
Jul 16, 2021
7 min
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