In our large collection of children’s stories from around the world you will find jungle tales, bedtime stories, funny stories, short stories, stories of friendships and much more… Some stories for kids will make you laugh, some will get you thinking, some will inspire, and some will fire up your imagination. Delve into this treasure-trove of juvenile fiction.
137 items in this section. Displaying page 4 of 14
Juan Tamad and the Flea-Killer
One weakness leads to another. So it was with Juan Tamad’s laziness. As his body was lazy, so was his mind. Truth being often hard to tell, he took recourse to lies, which came easy to him. Telling lies became his second nature. One day his mother sent him to town to buy a cooking pot. It so happened that the townspeople were afflicted by fleas. Nobody knew where they came from. They crawled up one’s legs and body and lodged themselves in the hair until one itched like mad....
Adal-Badal: The Exchange
It was the hour of twilight on the day of the Holi festival. A group of village boys, gathered under a neem tree, were playing, throwing dust at one another. Amrit and Isab came walking arm-in-arm and joined them. Both were wearing new clothes stitched that very day, identical in every respect: colour, size and material. The boys were in the same class, at the same school and lived in houses facing each other at the corner of the street....
Excerpts from Snake Trouble
Grandmother was tolerant of most of his pets, but she drew the line at reptiles. Even a sweet-tempered lizard made her blood run cold. There was little chance that she would allow a python in the house. “It will strangle you to death!” she cried. “Nonsense,” said Grandfather. “He’s only a young fellow.” “He’ll soon get used to us,” I added, by way of support. “Lock that awful thing in the bathroom,” she said. Excerpts from Snake Trouble [Illustrations by Mickey Patel] “Go and find the man you bought it from, give him twenty rupees or twice as much, and get him to come here and collect it!...
The Popular Student
Just how popular was Mini? Very. Every year, her classmates voted her as the favourite student. She was easy to get along with and great company. The number of friends she had by far outnumbered those of anyone else in her group. One day the 10-year-old was caught yakkety-yakking in the class and ordered to stay back as punishment. Staying back meant doing something ‘useful’, like helping in the garden or library after school. Now the school in which Mini studied had a rule of sorts....
Where is Manbhavan?
“Where’s Manbhavan?” Nitya cried. Her pudgy face showed great surprise. “Where is Manbhavan?” repeated Bhavna, peering into Nitya’s cupboard. The cardboard box in which he lived was wide open – and – absolutely empty! Bhavna gingerly picked up the blouses and skirts that lay arranged in neat piles on the shelf and poked around them with a hesitant finger. “Hmm – he’s not here, that’s for sure,” she said. “My cupboard was shut!” Nitya cried indignantly....
A Town Called Boring
Once upon a time in India,there was a town called Boring. It was by the side of Dull Lake. The people of Boring never smiled; they did not know how to — Whether it was grownups or children. All the children ever did was study. They studied in school all day. On returning home they got busy with homework and with revision for class tests in school. No one played any games — there were no playgrounds in the town....
What's in a Name?
There were two things in the world that Ghagra Geeta Bali hated. The first was the way Rani, the domestic help, combed her hair. Rani said she combed hard to make sure that there was no lice or dandruff in her hair. But she did it with such force that Ghagra Geeta Bali feared it would remove bits of her scalp, as well. The second was, you guessed it, her name. She hated her name so much that she prayed to god every night: Dear god, let me die and be born again....
The Stamp Album
Rajappa sensed a sudden drop in his popularity. For the past three days everyone had been crowding around Nagarajan. Rajappa tried to tell them that Nagarajan had become swollen headed, but no one paid any attention to him. For Nagarajan was generous in sharing the stamp album his uncle had sent from Singapore. The boys gathered around Nagarajan and devoured the album with their eyes till the school-bell rang for the morning class; they hovered round him at lunch-break and in the evening invaded his house....
Sadako’s Cranes
The atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima ten years ago. I lived a mile away from the city so nothing much happened to me, though the city and its people were burnt. The bomb didn’t do anything to me — so I thought for ten years. I love running. A few months ago, while I was practising for a relay event, I felt dizzy. I thought it was only because I was tired. Then a few weeks after that, I fell down in the field and couldn’t get up....
The Rainbow
Out in the lush, green garden Binnu chased the multi-coloured butterflies which flitted from flower to flower. Plants take root easily during the monsoon and with plenty of water to nourish them, new sprouts appear. The Rainbow [Translated by:Mala Singh] Suddenly there was a flash of lightening. Soon, the sky was completely overcast and it begun to rain. Binnu and his mother sheltered in the verandah and watched the rain. The rain stopped after a while and the sun peeped out from behind the clouds....