10 Best Bedtime Stories For Kids

Collection of 8 Best Short English Stories For Kids, Short Stories

Bedtime Stories For Kids

Parents often struggle searching Bedtime Stories for kids. That’s where our compilation of contemporary short English  stories for kids from various publishers and story books for kids across India and abroad might come in handy. These are moral short stories for kids, usually under 5 minutes, narrated in a very kid-friendly way. 

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Collection of 10 Best Short Bedtime Stories For Kids

1. The Sweet Soup

The Sweet Soup is the story of a young and kind girl who lived with her mother and had nothing to eat in her house. One day the girl went to the forest in search of some food. There she found a little rabbit limping around in pain. It’s feet were hurting due to a thorn. As soon as she pulled the thorn out of the limb of the rabbit, it ran off. It was an old lady in the disguise of a rabbit. She was pleased with the little girl’s act of kindness and rewarded her with a pot that had a special power. If one said, “Boil little pot!”, it would make sweet soup and if one said “Stop little pot!”, it would seize the boil. The girl happily took the pot back home and started cooking the soup.

One fine day, when the girl had gone out of the house, her mother started the spell to cook some soup for herself but she forgot how to stop the pot. By the time the girl returned back home and called out the spell to stop the pot, the entire village was flooded with sweet soup. Listen to other short bedtime stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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2. Too Many Bananas

Written by Rohini Nilekani; Illustrated by Angie & Upesh; Published by Pratham Books

Sringeri Srinivas used to grow bananas on his farm, but nobody wanted to buy his sweet ripe bananas. His friends, wife, traders, and even the cows denied eating any. They all would say, “No, Thank you. The bananas are very sweet but we have had too many. We cannot eat anymore.” Sringeri still had a huge pile of bananas left so he decided to seek help from the Farmer’s Center in Doddooru. When he returned, he looked very happy and went back to growing more bananas again.

But this time, he did not bother to offer bananas to anyone in his village. Then came a day when a member of the village was in need of 108 bananas for a sacred pooja and he rushed to Srinivas for help. Srinivas assured to help him out and brought 27 packets wrapped in banana leaves and offered it to the priest. He then explained that each packet contains 4 bananas which made 27 packets to a total of 108 bananas. This way everyone was happy with Sringeri’s new venture. Listen to the detailed story now in the Chimes Radio app.

Sringeri Srinivas used to grow bananas on his farm, but nobody wanted to buy his sweet ripe bananas. His friends, wife, traders, and even the cows denied eating any. They all would say, “No, Thank you. The bananas are very sweet but we have had too many. We cannot eat anymore.” Sringeri still had a huge pile of bananas left so he decided to seek help from the Farmer’s Center in Doddooru.

When he returned, he looked very happy and went back to growing more bananas again. But this time, he did not bother to offer bananas to anyone in his village. Then came a day when a member of the village was in need of 108 bananas for a sacred pooja and he rushed to Srinivas for help. Srinivas assured to help him out and brought 27 packets wrapped in banana leaves and offered it to the priest. He then explained that each packet contains 4 bananas which made 27 packets to a total of 108 bananas.

This way everyone was happy with Sringeri’s new venture. Listen to other short English bedtime stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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3. The Rainbow Fish

Written in Kannada by Jayashree Deshpande; Translated to English by Dr Divaspathy Hegde;
Illustrated by Monappa; Published by Pratham Books

A little boy named Raju lived in the city but during every summer break; he would visit his grandfather’s house in the village. In one such break, Raju decided to learn to swim and joined a local swimming class in the village. On his first day, he met a rainbow fish and started to have a little chit chat with it. The fish started to express their sadness about how human beings trap to catch them from the river and sell them to the market and how they trap those little colorful fishes in an aquarium. Raju promised the rainbow fish that he would let go of all the fish he owned in his aquarium. The rainbow fish smiled, tickled his feet, and bid him goodbye. Listen to other short English bedtime stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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4. The Boat Ride

Written and Illustrated by Herminder Ohri; Published by Pratham Books

In a small garden in the city lived a family of squirrels on a big peepal tree. Vikki, one of the members, had his cousin Kato come over to meet him from a faraway forest where he lived. They both decided to go on a boat ride in the water. As soon as they hopped into a boat and it curled up and down in the river stream. Accidentally Kato fell down into the water and shouted for help. Vikki unable to do anything on her own, started shouting too. A swan passing by noticed Kato drowning. She held him with her beak and tossed him on the boat and finally Kato was saved. Then they decided to share their story of an adventurous ride on a boat with their other folks. Listen to other short English bedtime stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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5. Kato Clever and The Big Trouble: Short English Stories

Written and Illustrated by Herminder Ohri; Published by Pratham Books

Kato the squirrel had come to visit his cousin Vikki and his family from the faraway forest in the city. One day, people came with machines and the yellow cap came to the spot they lived to cut down the trees and convert the place into a parking lot. All the animals residing in the garden got very worried as they were about to be homeless. After a while, Kato came up with a solution and offered them to live in the forest where he lived.

He suggested half the animals take the squirrel express to the forest, another half the mole express to the forest, and the birds to fly to the forest. All the animals were then happy and moved to the forest. Listen to other short English bedtime stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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6. The Day The Vegetables Came To School

Written in Kannada by Venkatramana Gowda; Translated to English by Dr. Divaspathy Hegde;
Illustrated by Padmanabh; Published by Pratham Books

One day Raju was going to school and was very happy. He noticed something very strange. Ahead of him marched unusual shapes going towards the school with schoolbags slung across their shoulders. Raju with curiosity walked faster to get a better look and it caught him into surprise when he saw the shapes were actually vegetable marching.

The parade had carrots, tomatoes, and all the other vegetables he saw in the market. Raju joined their parade and they all walked to the school. All the children came out to watch them and the teacher patted Raju happily until he realized that his mother was waking him up from his sleep. He was dreaming all this time. Listen to other short English stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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7. Grandpa Fish And The Radio

Written in Kannada by Jayashree Deshpande; Translated to English by Dr. Divaspathy Hegde;
Illustrated by Srikrishna Kedilaya; Published by Pratham Books

In a stream far away, lived several families of frogs, tortoises, and fish happily in each other’s company. The fish family was the largest of all. They had a big fat radio underwater. Grandpa fish was the head of the fish and was respected by all. He had everything in his control except for the family radio. The young fishes and tortoises would occupy the radio playing film music and grandpa never had time to listen to any news. One day he managed to play the radio and heard a serious announcement, “A group of people is using new techniques to capture maximum numbers of fish possible.

They are poisoning the water of the rivers one by one!” All the river creatures went numb in fear upon hearing this and decided to seek help from the village headman. It is then the younger ones realized what a huge disaster it would have been had grandpa fish not listened to the news and decided to mend their ways in the future. Listen to other short English stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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8. The Sparrow And The Fruit

Written in Kannada by Jayashree Deshpande; Translated to English by Dr. Divaspathy Hegde;
Illustrated by Padmanabh; Published by Pratham Books 

A bird named Gubbi got herself juicy guava from the market. He was very excited but unfortunately, the guava fell from her claws into a thorny bush. She wanted it very badly so she sought help from a boy first, but he denied it. Then she went to a farmer and begged him to beat the boy up for not helping. Then came the cow, fisherman, rat, and a cat but everyone refused to help Gubbi with her mischievous plan of hurting people who refused to help.

Then she went to her friend, an ant, and she agreed to help her out. In the end, with a chain of events as she had planned out, Gubbi got her guava back but this time she got hit by a big chunk of firewood and lost the guava yet again. Listen to other short English stories for kids on our Chimes Radio app.

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9. Row Row Row Your Boat

Written in Kannada by Jayashree Deshpande,  Translated to English by Dr. Divaspathy Hegde; Published by Pratham Books

Visiting Ajja and Ajji in the village is always exciting for Raju, but this time, his grandparents have a special surprise for him. One evening, when they are taking their usual walk along the river, Ajja suggests a boat ride. Why don’t you join them? For more english short story like this and other bedtime stories for kids download our Chimes Radio app.

10. The Generous Crow

Written in Kannada by Venkatramana Gowda; Translated to English by Dr. Divaspathy Hegde; Illustrated by Padmanabh; Published by Pratham Books

Crow is neither beautiful nor does it enjoy a melodious voice. So it goes to a Koyal to learn singing but was unable to learn. Koyal declares she can’t teach the crow. Then the crow goes to a peacock to learn dancing but again the crow is not able to perform as well as the peacock. Then crow decides to learn how to build a nest from a sparrow but again is not able to pull it off and the sparrow sends it away haughtily. Then she saw a pile of rice and invites all her family and friends to enjoy it. That’s when crow realizes that she is the only generous bird who share its food with other animals.

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