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10 Best Classic Fairy Tales For Your Kids

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ― Albert Einstein.

Fairy tales often take people to the sweet memory lane of their childhood. The memories of magic, dragons, and evilness getting defeated never fail to bring a smile to our faces. 

Reading or listening to classic tales can help parents bond better with their children and nurture their creativity.

So, if you are looking for the best bedtime stories for your children, this blog will surely help you. Let’s explore some of the fascinating and timeless fairy tales that can bring lots of colors and blooms to your kid’s childhood. 

Cinderella is one of the most popular fairy tales of all time. Its story remains an all-time classic and will remain the same for future generations as well.

Cinderella was a young woman who lived with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Thanks to her glass slipper, she found her Prince Charming and escaped her difficult life. 

Cinderella’s story has been adapted in many variations over history. Cinderella’s popular version “The Brother Grimm” was published in 1812. Recently, in 2021, Disney has released a new Cinderella movie with a modern outlook. 

Moral: This story tells kids how they should never stop dreaming despite all the hardships that life presents them with.

Related Reading: Top Reading Apps for Kids: How to Use Screens For Stories 

Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale that celebrates real royalty. In the story, a spoiled prince turns into a beast and imprisons a beautiful young lady named Belle. It’s only when he learns to love Belle that he becomes the prince again. 

This fairy tale is assumed to be inspired by a real-life couple who lived in France in the 1500s. The man had a condition called hypertrichosis. This condition causes abnormal hair growth on the body. 

So, he was referred to as a wild man and was kept in a cage for a long time. In a surprising turn of events, he married a royal court servant’s daughter, and they had 7 children.

Moral: We should value internal characteristics such as kindness over other superficial or physical qualities. 

Rapunzel is a beautiful and motivational fairy tale. The story shows how a poor couple lost their daughter Rapunzel when they stole fruit from their neighbor’s garden. It also focuses on how the angelic voice of Rapunzel reunites her with her lover. 

Moral: This story gives two bold messages that one should never steal, and evilness never wins. 

Related Reading: Best Children’s Books to Stimulate Kids’ Imagination & Creativity

Snow White is a young princess and is defined by her inherent kindness and pure beauty. In the story, an evil queen spends all her life envying Snow White’s beauty. 

But, in the end, Snow White finds her happiness by marrying the prince. In contrast, the evil queen loses her peace and leads an unhappy life while chasing meaningless physical beauty. 

Moral: This story has an insightful moral — if you lust over physical beauty, you lose your peace in the way. The story also encourages kids to be kind and pure like Snow White. 

A rebellious Red sets off alone to meet her grandmother with instructions to never step off the forest path. But she disobeys the instructions and attracts the attention of the bad wolf. 

Now, what happens next depends on the version you are reading. In the Charles Perrault version, Red gets gobbled up by the wolf. However, across Europe, North America, and many other tellings, she was saved by her hood or a guy with an ax. 

Moral: This fairy tale intends to teach children to follow directions and express their courage at the time of need.  

Jack is a rule-breaker and loves to prank. Once, he traded a family cow for a couple of magic beans in the hope of climbing the beanstalk and reaching the giant’s castle to steal his magic possessions. 

This story will help you teach your naughty little pranksters that no matter how daring you are, one should never cross certain boundaries in life. 

Moral: The story shows that undying greed for more will take away what you already have in your life. 

Related Reading: Learning Styles That Make Learning Easy-Peasy For Kids

Sleeping Beauty is slightly similar to Snow White. The story revolves around a Sleeping Beauty who was cursed by a wicked fairy. Beauty spends all her childhood sleeping, but on her 16th birthday, her prince charming finds her and wakes her up after years of slumber. 

Like other fairy tales, different interpretations of Sleeping Beauty are also available. However, Disney’s Maleficent in the year 2014 achieved the most success. 

Moral: The story shows that growing up has its own hurdles but in the end, love conquers all.

If you want to raise a little animal helper, this is the perfect story for you. Puss is a bold trickster who masquerades as the servant of a nobleman. His tactics bring him fame, fortune, and a wife at a young age. 

The boots in this fairy tale symbolize wealth and wisdom. The story is set back in the 16th century when people used to be barefoot. So, having boots at that time was a significant sign of wealth. 

Moral: The story’s moral is simple — your wisdom can help you win wealth. 

This tale talks about the hunger of the heart and stomach. Hansel and Gretel are abandoned by their stepmother in the forest. Both children can’t resist eating a real gingerbread cottage out of hunger. But they get caught by a cannibal witch who lives there.  

In the end, they shove the witch into the fiery oven to escape. 

Moral: This story will teach your kids how fortunate they are to have food on their plates. It will help them be grateful in life and never have any egos! 

In this story, a frog helps a princess to find her golden ball in the pond and then invites her to live in the castle. It is then that the frog turns into a prince. The storyline of The Frog Prince is quite similar to Beauty and the Beast.

Moral: The story teaches that it’s important to value kindness and goodness over physical beauty. It also tries to convey the importance of keeping our promises.

Related Reading: Best Riddles for Kids of all Grades (With Answers)!

Are you wondering how centuries-old fairy tales can benefit your child in this digital age? Well, no matter how old fairy tales are, they can always make your kid’s childhood happy and memorable.  

Be it The Brothers Grimm or Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, all the classic magic stories can benefit your child in a number of ways:

Storytelling plays a significant role in a child’s development. That is because 95% of the human brain develops by the age of six. Therefore, reading or listening to fairy tales can build imagination and literacy for your child. 

Your child can engage in fantasy land and learn to distinguish the fantasy world from the real world. They can learn to express their thoughts and ideas better. 

Some studies even indicate that storytelling helps to improve vocabulary and confidence among children. 

Through stories, children and even adults can learn how to handle certain problems. Cinderella’s story fits perfectly in this context. It tells how a young woman escapes her difficult life despite her wicked stepmother and stepsisters’ cruelties.  

Stories allow people to step into the character’s shoes and learn how they can easily conquer problems and presents children with an interactive method of learning. This is one of the reasons why SplashLearn creates visually appealing and character-based animated games. 

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Children connect better with the characters in the stories. This helps them learn from their favorite characters’ life stories. The stories can show children how to believe in goodness amidst problems and anxieties. 

For example, Beauty and the Beast portray how selfishness can turn a prince into a beast. It also shows how beauty and kindness can turn a beast into a prince again. 

Fairy tales can bring cultural flavors into your child’s life. Different versions of stories are available today that can help your children interact with different cultures.  

Fairy tales show that life isn’t perfect. Children discover that bad things happen to everyone. But if you are emotionally resilient, you can overcome all challenges. 

This helps children stay strong during hard times and always believe in the richness of life despite hardships. 

Exposing your child to the world of fantasy can stimulate their imagination. It might amaze you to see how children can give a spin to traditional stories and interpret them into something completely different. 

For instance, the University of Hawai’i conducted a study to evaluate the positive impact of fairy tales on children. In the study, researchers exposed children to different classic stories to understand their impact. 

Interestingly, after listening to Little Red Riding Hood, a seven-year-old boy draws the wolf to the size of an ant. He used his imagination to create a funny interpretation of the bad wolf and show his courage.  

So, when you introduce a story to your child, you are providing them with an opportunity to think and imagine different scenarios. 

Every fairy tale is attached to a moral lesson. Fairy tales often leave us with a strong message, whether it is being good or believing in love or friendship. 

You might have a hard time making your toddler understand where the difference between good and bad lies. But stories like “The Emperor’s New Clothes” can better show to your kids, the consequences of convincing yourself that something was true when it wasn’t.

Through classic fairy tales, parents can bond with their children in a great capacity. They can relive their childhood memories with their kids and build some new memories.

You can forget anything in your life, but you can never forget all the classic fairy tales that you have heard in your childhood. Have you ever thought, why? 

That is mainly because stories capture our interest in a much better way. And once we learn something with an interest, we tend to not forget that information. 

SplashLearn creates learning games to spike and capture kids’ interest. The engaging characters and visuals motivate the little ones to learn. Different mediums like games, worksheets and courses on Math and English can help them remember and retain concepts their entire life. 

Today, you can try SplashLearn with your kids to see how they actually interact with interesting learning mediums. 

Parents, sign up for free!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which is the oldest fairy tale?

According to some researchers, The Smith And The Devil is the oldest fairy tale. It goes back by 6,000 years to the Bronze Age.

Do all fairy tales have morals?

Yes. Fairy tales are written with a motive to teach a lesson to children via interesting characters and a storyline

How do fairy tales affect child development? 

When children listen to fairy tales often, it affects their imagination and helps them to think about new things. The fairy tales affect the emotional, physical, and mental development of a child. 

Do fairy tales have the truth? 

Fairy tales have been passed down from many generations and cultures. However, today there’s no solid source from where these tales come from, but they have been inspired from somewhere. So, we can say that some fairy tales are adaptations of real-life events. 

Are fairy tales timeless?

Yes. The storyline might have changed in many tales with time, but the central idea has always been the same. 

What is the right time to read fairy tales to your child?

There’s no specific time to read stories to your kids. However, most parents prefer to read stories before bedtime. But you can read them to your child anytime as soon as they turn two.

Famous Fairy Tales | Bedtime Stories

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100 best fairy tales of the world. Guide to fairy tales

Fairy tale is usually called a work of an epic, magical, heroic or everyday character with an undisguisedly fictional plot and no pretensions to the historicity of the narration.
Traditionally, fairy tales are divided into folklore (folk) and literary (author's).
Folk tale (folk) — a type of written and oral folk art, including works of different genres, the texts of which are based on fiction
Literary tale (author's) is a fiction-oriented work that is closely related to a folk tale, but, unlike it, belongs to a specific author.

The word "fairy tale" is attested in written sources no earlier than the 17th century. It comes from the word "say". It mattered: a list, a list, an exact description. For example, the census document "Revision Tale". It acquires modern significance from the 17th-19th centuries. Previously, the word "fable" was used.
European peoples, as a rule, do not designate a folk tale in any way, using a variety of words to define it. There are only two European languages ​​that have created special words for this concept: Russian and German.

Complementary materials - Top 135 Russian fairy tales. The best fairy tales in Russian

Literary fairy tales

Literary fairy tale is an epic genre: a fiction-oriented work, closely related to a folk tale, but, unlike it, belonging to a specific author, did not exist before publication in oral form and had no options. A literary fairy tale either imitates a folklore one ( literary fairy tale written in folk poetic style ), or creates a didactic work based on non-folklore stories.

The main differences between folklore and literary fairy tales:
- A literary fairy tale is always recorded and its appearance is unchanged. A folk tale does not have a strictly established text; each storyteller could add or remove something to it at will.
- The literary tale reflects the author's personal view of the world, his idea of ​​life and justice. The folklore tale reflects the ideals and values ​​of the whole people.
- A literary fairy tale is a reflection of the era in which it was written and the dominant literary currents of that time.

By analogy with the classification of folk tales, fairy tales about animals, magical, everyday, adventurous can be distinguished among literary tales; in terms of pathos - heroic, lyrical, humorous, satirical, philosophical, psychological tales; in proximity to other literary genres - fairy tales-poems, fairy tales-short stories, fairy tales-tales, fairy tales-parables, fairy tales-plays, fairy tales-parodies, science fiction fairy tales, fairy tales of the absurd, etc.

Literary tales have been known since ancient times: the most ancient Egyptian tale of the 13th century BC has been preserved. e. in the form of a literary story about two brothers, the ancient Indian parables "Jataka" about the earthly reincarnations of the Buddha, created from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e., the tale of the ancient Roman writer of the II century AD. e. Apuleius "Cupid and Psyche". The first modern fictional fairy tales can be found in the Delicious Nights collection by the Italian Straparola.
French rococo fairy tales were collected in Germany during the Weimar Classicism, in particular by Christoph Martin Wieland in the collection Djinnistan.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote three literary tales: "The Tale" (in "The Entertainment of German Emigrants"), "New Paris" (in "Poetry and Truth") and "New Melusina" (in "Wilhelm Meister's Marching Years").

The French poet and critic Charles Perrault (Perrault, 1628-1703) can be considered one of the most famous founders of the author's fairy tale. In 1697 he published the collection Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings. The collection contained eight tales, which were a literary adaptation of folk tales (it is believed that they heard from the nurse of Perrault's son). This book made Perrault widely known outside the literary circle. In fact, Perrault introduced the folk tale into the system of genres of "high" literature.
The Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) influenced the tradition of the author's fairy tale, in whose plays both motifs borrowed from Italian folklore and motifs of oriental fairy tales were combined.
One of the best masters of the German author's fairy tale was the prose writer Wilhelm Hauff (Hauff, 1802–1827).
Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) - are one of the most famous and widely read storytellers on our planet. They collected and recorded about two hundred and ten fairy tales and legends, which are read and re-read by more than one generation.
The tales of the Danish prose writer Hans Christian Andersen (Andersen, 1805–1875) are addressed to audiences regardless of age.
Rudyard Kipling (Kipling, 1865–1936) used in his prose knowledge not only of native folklore, but also of world mythology.
Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940 ) created the classic children's book Nils Holgerson's Wonderful Journey Through Sweden (1906–1907).
Another Swedish writer, Astrid Lindgren (Lindgren, 1907–2003) created the famous books Pippi Longstocking (1945–1946) or The Kid and Carlson Who Lives on the Roof (1955–1968) after World War II.
Italian prose writer Gianni Rodari (1920–1980) is associated both with the tradition of the folk tale and with the literary tradition, which is reflected in the fairy tales The Adventures of Cipollino (1951) and The Journey of the Blue Arrow (1952), as well as in the book Tales on the Telephone (1962).

100 best literary fairy tales in the world

1	Hans Christian Andersen. ugly duckling
2	Hans Christian Andersen. Mermaid
3	Hans Christian Andersen. The Princess and the Pea
4	Hans Christian Andersen. Steadfast Tin Soldier
5	Hans Christian Andersen. Thumbelina
6	Hans Christian Andersen. Snow Queen
7	Charles Perrault. Cinderella
8	Charles Perrault. Little Red Riding Hood
9	Charles Perrault. Thumb boy
10	Charles Perrault. sleeping beauty
11	Charles Perrault - Puss in Boots
12	Charles Perrault - Beauty and the Beast
13	Brothers Grimm. Snow White
14	Brothers Grimm. Bremen Town Musicians
15	Brothers Grimm. Rapunzel
16	Brothers Grimm. Wolf and seven little goats
17	Unknown - One Thousand and One Nights
18	Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann - The Golden Pot
19	Wilhelm Hauff. Little Muk
20	Wilhelm Hauff. Dwarf Nose
21	Wilhelm Hauff. Frozen
22	Carlo Collodi. The Adventures of Pinocchio
23	Gianni Rodari - The Adventures of Cipollino
24	Selma Lagerlöf - Nils' Wonderful Journey with Wild Geese
25	Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince
26	Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland
27	Lewis Carroll - Alice Through the Looking-Glass
28	Astrid Lindgren - Kid and Carlson, who lives on the roof
29	Astrid Lindgren - Pippi Longstocking
30	Astrid Lindgren - Roni the robber's daughter
31	Alan Alexander Milne - Winnie the Pooh
32	Lyman Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
33	Tove Jansson - Tales of Moomintroll
34	Clive Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia
35	Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book
36	Pamela Travers - Mary Poppins
37	James Barry - Peter Pan and Wendy
38	Lyman Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
39	John Tolkien - The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
40	John Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
41	JK Rowling - Harry Potter Series
42	Maurice Maeterlinck - Blue Bird
43	Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
44	James Crews - Tim Thaler, or Sold Laughter
45	Ursula Le Guin - Wizard of Earthsea
46	Rudolf Erich Raspe - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
47	Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
48	Wilhelm Hauff - Frozen
49	Gianni Rodari - Gelsomino in the Land of Liars
50	Carlo Gozzi – Turandot
51	Carlo Gozzi - Love for three oranges
52	Carlo Gozzi - The Stag King
53	Oscar Wilde - Star Boy
54	Grace McClean - The most beautiful land in the world
55	Michael Ende - Momo
56	Frances Eliza Burnett - Secret Garden
57	Jan Brzehwa - Pan Klyaksa Academy
58	Joseph Delaney - The Witcher's Apprentice book series
59	Michael Bond - Paddington Bear
60	Maurice Druon - Tistu the boy with green fingers
61	Cressida Cowell - How to Train Your Dragon
62	Jorge Amado - Tabby cat and swallow Signa
63	Alan Garner - Owls on plates
64	Alexander Pushkin — The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
65	Alexander Pushkin — The Tale of Tsar Saltan
66	Alexander Pushkin - The tale of the priest and his worker Balda
67	Alexander Pushkin - The Tale of the Golden Cockerel
68	Alexander Pushkin - The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs
69	Alexander Ostrovsky - Snow Maiden
70	Sergey Aksakov. scarlet flower
71	Petr Ershov - The Little Humpbacked Horse
72	Alexei Tolstoy - The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio
73	Korney Chukovsky - Doctor Aibolit
74	Korney Chukovsky - Moidodyr
75	Nikolay Nosov - Adventures of Dunno and his friends
76	Nikolai Nosov - Dunno on the Moon
77	Samuil Marshak - Twelve months
78	Nikolai Nosov - Dunno in the Sunny City
79	Eduard Uspensky - Uncle Fyodor, dog and cat
80	Ian Larry - The Extraordinary Adventures of Karik and Vali
81	Lazar Lagin - Old Man Hottabych
82	Vitaly Gubarev - Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors
83	Pavel Bazhov - Ural Tales
84	Valentin Kataev - Semi-flower
85	Alexander Volkov - Wizard of the Emerald City
86	Alexander Volkov - Urfin Deuce and his wooden soldiers
87	Alexander Volkov - Yellow Mist
88	Alexander Volkov - Fiery god of Marranov
89	Alexander Volkov - Seven Underground Kings
90	Vsevolod Garshin. Traveling frog
91	Vladimir Odoevsky. City in a snuffbox
92	Yuri Olesha - Three fat men
93	Anthony Pogorelsky — Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants
94	Sergey Kozlov - Tales of a hedgehog and a bear cub
95	Konstantin Paustovsky - Tales
96	Vitaly Bianchi - Stories and Tales
97	Vladimir Dal - Tales
98	Evgeny Schwartz - Dragon
99	Evgeniy Schwartz - The Tale of Lost Time
100	Evgeny Veltistov - Electronics - a boy from a suitcase

Where to buy books with fairy tales

Tales (Electronic Books, Audio Books) in the Litres store Genre Tales

Tales (Paper Books) in the Book. 24 9000 9000 9000 store series the best fairy tales

33 famous fairy tales for children and adults

1. Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
2. Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince
3. Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland
4. Lewis Carroll - Alice Through the Looking Glass
5. Alexander Pushkin - Ruslan and Lyudmila
6 Alexander Pushkin - The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
7. Alexander Pushkin - The Tale of Tsar Saltan
8. Alexander Pushkin - The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs
9. Nikolai Gogol - Viy
10. Alexander Grin - Scarlet Sails
11 Alexander Volkov - The Wizard of the Emerald City
12. Leonid Filatov - About Fedot the Archer, a daring fellow
13. Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book
14. John Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
15. John Tolkien - The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
16. Maurice Maeterlinck - The Blue Bird
17. Oscar Wilde - The Canterville Ghost
18. Alexander Green - Running on the Waves
19. Rudolf Erich Raspe - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
20. Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol in Prose
21. Unknown Author - A Thousand and One Nights
22. Evgeny Schwartz - Ordinary Miracle
23. Evgeny Schwartz - The Dragon
24. Evgeny Schwartz - Tale of Lost Time
25. Charles Perrault - Tales of Mother Goose
26. Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
27. Ursula Le Guin - The Wizard of the Earthsea
28. Vitaly Bianchi - Stories and Tales
29. Yuri Olesha - Three Fat Men
30. Marietta Shaginyan - Mess Mend, or the Yankees in Petrograd
31. Evgeny Schwartz - Naked King
32. Evgeny Schwartz - Shadow
Stepan Pisakhov - Ice cream songs

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