Ages 9-12
Stories suggested for ages 9–12, with longer journeys, competing motives and difficult choices. Some contain frightening scenes or violence described in the page’s guidance. These age suggestions support selection and discussion; they do not make every traditional story equally suitable for every reader.
Korean Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
An Encounter with a Hobgoblin
A young captain moves into an empty house in Seoul, where a vanishing woman, a rain of hot coals and a goblin who flings him across Korea await him.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Wooing of Olwen
To win the giant’s daughter Olwen, young Kilhuch and King Arthur’s strangest champions must find a lost prisoner and hunt a terrible magic boar.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Tale of Ivan
Ivan takes three pieces of advice instead of three years’ wages, and each one saves his life, his friends or his good name on the long road home.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Vision of MacConglinney
A wandering scholar cures a king’s endless hunger by tying him up, eating in front of him and describing a dream of houses and boats made of food.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Story-Teller at Fault
A king’s story-teller who cannot think of a tale loses everything at dice to a lame beggar, and is whisked off to watch the stranger’s wildest tricks.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Story of the McAndrew Family
Seven foolish McAndrew brothers lose their cows, their gold and their land, field by field, to neighbours ready to cheat them, until only begging is left.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Shepherd of Myddvai
A Welsh shepherd wins a lovely maiden from the lake with the right kind of bread, but she warns him she will leave if he strikes her three times without cause.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Ridere of Riddles
Two princes flee a poisoning stepmother, and a string of strange deaths on the road gives them a riddle that even the Knight of Riddles cannot solve.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Russet Dog
The Russet Dog, the clever Highland fox, tricks a hunter, a cock and the poor wolf over and over, until one careless joke finally costs him dearly.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Huntsman’s Son
Fergus, a huntsman’s son, gives shelter to three strange guests one stormy night, and each repays him when he tries to win a proud princess at Tara.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Lad with the Goat-Skin
Tom, a poor widow’s son dressed only in a goat-skin, wins three magic gifts from giants and sets out to make the gloomy princess of Dublin laugh three times.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The House in the Lake
A fisherman’s son spares a little trout that turns into a talking swan, and to free her he must walk the lake bed past a dragon to the fairy queen.