Patience & Perseverance
Waiting, repeated attempts and long journeys test the characters in these stories. Compare persistence with preparation, support and the willingness to change a plan. Notice when another attempt helps and when it repeats a harmful mistake; an ending worth discussing may involve stopping, seeking help or choosing a different goal.
Bengal Folk Tales
The Clever Wife
A merchant jokes that his wife should build a well and give him a son while he is away for a year, and she cleverly manages both, outwitting a king.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Blind Men and the Elephant
A king gathers all the blind men of his city to feel an elephant, and each of them is certain that he alone knows what an elephant is really like.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 6-8
The Oak and the Reed
After a gale uproots an oak, it asks the reeds how their frail stems survived. Their answer contrasts bending with resisting the wind.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 3-5
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
A country mouse visits his cousin in town and tastes rich food, but every opening door sends them fleeing, so he goes home to simple peace.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats
A mother goat warns her seven kids of the wolf; he softens his voice and whitens his paws—yet the youngest, hidden in the clock, helps undo him.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 6-8
The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs
A couple's goose lays one golden egg each day. They kill it hoping to find gold inside, but find ordinary flesh and lose the daily eggs.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 3-5
The Crow and the Pitcher
A thirsty crow finds a pitcher with water too low to reach, so she drops in pebble after pebble until the water rises to her beak.
The Story of Princess Hase
A gifted young princess survives her jealous stepmother’s poisoned wine and secret order to kill her, until her father finds her hidden in the mountains.
Japanese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Snow Woman (Yuki-Onna)
Spared by a ghostly woman of the snow on the night his master freezes, a young woodcutter keeps her secret for years, until he tells his own wife.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Sigurd and the Dragon Fafnir
When the dwarf Andvari curses his stolen ring, the gold passes from the gods to a greedy family, until young Sigurd faces the dragon Fafnir on Gnita Heath.
Arabian Nights
Scheherazade and the Sultan
To end the Sultan's deadly weddings, the vizier's daughter Scheherazade volunteers as his bride, with a plan that depends on one story.
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Seven Voyages of Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage
Sinbad’s crew breaks a roc egg and pays with a wreck; washed ashore, he frees himself from the Old Man of the Sea, then harvests nuts via angry monkeys.