Fairy tales about loss

The Nightingale is about losing something and finding it again. The emperor banishes the real bird for a clockwork one, until it breaks and he lies ill with Death on his chest. The nightingale returns and sings until Death floats out of the window.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf takes two minutes and is about losing trust. He fools the villagers twice, and the third time nobody comes. Children usually understand the ending without help, so let them say what went wrong before you do.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is short but heavy. The town refuses to pay him for the rats, and he comes back to lead a hundred and thirty children into a hill. It is marked from age seven, and a child may need to hear that it is an old legend.

The Fir Tree is about missing happy days you did not notice at the time. In the attic it tells the mice about the forest and Christmas Eve, and only then sees how happy it was. Andersen does not soften the ending, so take it slowly.