Fairy tales about journeys

Thumbelina is carried off by a toad, drifts away on a lily leaf, spends a winter with a field mouse and finally flies south on the back of a swallow she nursed back to life. Each stop is its own episode, so the tale is easy to pause.

In East of the Sun and West of the Moon a girl rides to three old women and then to the four winds, until the North Wind carries her across the sea to the castle. It is one of the longest journeys here, best for children of seven and up.

Odysseus and the Cyclops is a sea voyage with a stop that nearly ends it: a giant’s cave, a stone across the doorway and an escape clinging under the bellies of rams. Some of the crew are eaten, so it suits older listeners.

For the youngest there is The North Wind and the Sun, a two-minute fable about a traveler on a country road. Before the end, ask your child which of the two will get his cloak off. Many guess the wind, and that is half the fun.