Fairy tales about cleverness

Belling the Cat is a two-minute fable that ends on a question instead of a solution. The mice cheer a fine plan until an old mouse asks who will hang the bell, which lets you ask your child whether a clever idea is ever enough by itself.

The Crow and the Pitcher shows patient cleverness. A crow afraid she will die of thirst sits still, thinks, and drops small pebbles into a deep pitcher until the water reaches her beak. Three-year-olds can follow it and try it out with a glass.

In Baba Yaga the girl is clever before she even leaves home: she asks her real aunt for advice first. Every creature she treats kindly on the way, the cat, the dogs, the doors, the birch tree and the maid, then refuses to stop her, and children love hearing why.

The Bremen Town Musicians win a house by stacking themselves at a window and making their music all at once. The robber who comes back mistakes the cat’s eyes for coals and the rooster for a judge, and children enjoy retelling what he saw.