Top 10 stories for a first kids' book club
The ten, in order
- Lion and Mouse · ours. Level 4, about 56 words (2 minutes aloud). Aesop, a storyteller in Greece, told this about 2,600 years ago.
- The Little Red Hen · ours. Level 4, about 96 words (2 minutes aloud). Mary Mapes Dodge heard this from her mother and wrote it down in America in 1874, about 150 years ago.
- The Enormous Turnip · ours. Level 5, about 93 words (2 minutes aloud). People in Russia told this for a long time. Alexander Afanasyev wrote it down in 1863, about 160 years ago.
- The Crow and the Pitcher · ours. Level 5, about 128 words (2 minutes aloud). Aesop, a storyteller in Greece, told this about 2,600 years ago. Real crows can do this trick too!
- The Tortoise and the Hare · ours. Level 5, about 132 words (2 minutes aloud). Aesop, a storyteller in Greece, told this about 2,600 years ago.
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears · ours. Level 5, about 175 words (2 minutes aloud). Robert Southey wrote this down in England in 1837. Later tellers gave the girl her golden hair.
- The Gingerbread Man · ours. Level 5, about 179 words (2 minutes aloud). A children's magazine in America printed this in 1875, about 150 years ago. Kids have been running with it ever since.
- Henny Penny · ours. Level 5, about 180 words (2 minutes aloud). People all over Europe told this for hundreds of years. Joseph Jacobs wrote it down in England in 1890.
- The Three Little Pigs · ours. Level 5, about 200 words (2 minutes aloud). People in England told this for hundreds of years before Joseph Jacobs wrote it down in 1890.
- The Fox and the Grapes · ours. Level 7, about 292 words (2 minutes aloud). Aesop, a storyteller in Greece, told this about 2,600 years ago. People still say "sour grapes" today.
How this list is made
Stories with a club kit at levels 4 to 9, ranked by level, then by fewest words (the quickest to read aloud at a meeting).