Bedtime Stories
Calming bedtime stories for children, narrated in your own voice. Start with your child's age, pick a shelf, or read straight down the page.
Bedtime in your own voice
Record your voice once. Your child hears you at bedtime, every night, even when you can't be there.
Top picks
The ones we hand to a parent who has never opened the app before.
The Brave Little Bunny
On the night of the big storm, a small bunny named Bo is afraid of the dark forest. Then one tiny act of kindness turns fear into courage and carries him gently home to sleep.
Beauty and the Beast
A kind young woman named Lily takes her father's place in a mysterious castle and slowly sees past the Beast's fearsome shape to the gentle heart within, discovering that true beauty comes from kindness, courage, and love.
Cinderella
A kind-hearted girl endures an unkind stepfamily with a gentle heart. With a little courage and a little magic, she finds happiness, and learns that kindness is strongest when we share it even when others have not shared it with us.
The Three Little Pigs
Three pig siblings set off to build homes of their own. When a hungry wolf comes knocking, they discover that patience and hard work are what keep them safe, and that the strongest home is worth the wait.
Collections
Shelves of stories that belong together.
Animal Tales
4 storiesAnimal bedtime stories are gentle tales starring the creatures children love, brave little cubs, clever tortoises, kind bunnies.
Browse the collectionClassic Fairy Tales
4 storiesClassic fairy tales are the stories that have soothed children to sleep for generations, gentle retellings of tales like Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs with the scary parts kept light and the endings warm.
Browse the collectionFolk Tales
7 storiesFolk tales are timeless stories passed down through generations, gentle, wise, and full of heart.
Browse the collectionMoral Stories
3 storiesA moral story ends with something worth carrying into the morning.
Browse the collectionPanchatantra
0 storiesThe Panchatantra is one of the world's oldest collections of animal fables, written in India more than two thousand years ago to teach children wisdom through story rather than instruction.
Browse the collectionMaryada Rama
7 storiesMaryada Rama is a boy from South Indian folk tradition whose sense of fairness became so well known that grown-ups brought him their quarrels to settle.
Browse the collectionMore stories
13 more from the shelves above.
Andy and Sam: The Power of Helping Others
Andy the ant helps anyone who asks, and Sam helps nobody at all. Then a stone rolls against Sam and pins him, and the whole colony comes running anyway. A gentle story about kindness finding its way back.
Rama Earns the Title of "The Justice"
When three travelers drag an innocent old innkeeper to court over a missing brass pot, a bright village boy named Rama asks the one question nobody else thought of. His fairness saves her, and earns him the name Maryada Rama, Rama the Justice.
The Brahman's Gold
An old Brahman hides his life's savings under a layer of lentils and leaves the pot with a neighbor he trusts. The gold vanishes while he is away, and there is no witness at all. So Maryada Rama hides one small listener where the truth cannot help but be spoken aloud.
The Clever Cat and the Wise Judge
Four merchants each claim a leg of the clever cat that saved their cotton from rats. When an accident sets the warehouse on fire, they rush to blame one partner. The wise judge Maryada Rama shows them that those who share the credit must also share the responsibility.
The Dead Elephant and the Broken Pots
A borrowed elephant dies on the way home from a wedding, and its owner refuses every offer of money. He wants his own animal back, alive. Maryada Rama does not argue with him. He quietly arranges for the stubborn man to be handed the very same impossible demand.
The Dishonest Debtor
A farmer burns the written bond that proves his debt, then swears in court that no such paper ever existed. Maryada Rama does not argue with him. He sets a quiet trap out of a single measurement, and lets the farmer's own mouth prove he remembers the bond perfectly.
The False Witnesses Trapped
A dishonest man keeps a ruby left in his care and brings three paid witnesses to court to back his lie. Maryada Rama never accuses anyone. He simply hands out five pieces of clay, and lets the truth shape itself.
The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs
A poor farmer and his wife trade a basket of vegetables for a white goose, and wake to find a golden egg in her nest. One egg a day is enough, until they start wondering how many might be waiting inside her.
The Greedy Neighbor
A greedy woman steals and eats her neighbor's hen, and there is no witness and no proof. Maryada Rama cannot judge on suspicion alone, so he sets a gentle trap with an imaginary feather, and lets a guilty conscience give itself away.
The Kind Jackal and the Tiger's Cave
A helpful little jackal hears crying inside a dark cave and steps in without looking, and a tiger's paw comes out of the dark. A wise lion teaches him that a kind heart works best with a quiet pause in front of it.
The Little Swan
A big gray duckling feels different from all his yellow brothers and sisters, and sets off alone. At a sparkling lake, a family of kind swans welcomes him, and one still morning he discovers he was a swan all along, learning that true beauty comes from being exactly who you are.
Tortoise and the Rabbit
A speedy rabbit named Rusty is sure he can never lose to slow little Shellby the tortoise. But steady steps, taken every single day, carry Shellby further than one big burst of speed, and teach the whole meadow that consistency is a superpower.
Leo Finds His Roar
A tiny lion cub named Leo wakes up lost and frightened on a big city street, where his roar comes out as only a squeak. With the help of a kind boy named Milo, and one brave rescue, Leo discovers that being brave means helping even when your legs are shaking.
Standalone stories
One-off tales that belong to no collection.
The Nails in the Fence
Every time Harry loses his temper, his father asks him to hammer one nail into the garden fence. The day the last nail comes out, his father walks him back to the fence to look at what the nails left behind.
The Fox and the Goat
On a hot summer afternoon, a thirsty fox leaps into a deep well for a drink and discovers too late that the walls are far too steep to climb. When a kind-hearted goat wanders by the next morning, the fox praises the sweet water until she jumps in beside him, then climbs out on her back and walks away. A gentle, classic Aesop fable that ends with a warm reminder for little listeners: it is lovely to be kind and trusting, but always stop to think before you follow, and look before you leap.
Browse another way
Same stories, sorted by what they are about.