Read the fairy tale Zummy loves
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
A little girl who wanders off the path, a cottage with three of everything, and a house that teaches her, gently, what belongs to someone else: one of the best-loved tales to come out of England.
Deep in an English wood stood a small cottage that belonged to three bears: a great big father bear, a middle sized mother bear, and a small wee baby bear. One morning the three of them made porridge for breakfast, but it was too hot to eat, so they went for a walk in the wood while it cooled. Not far away, a little girl with hair like ripe wheat had wandered off the path while she was out picking flowers, and before she quite knew how, she had found the bears’ cottage and pushed open the door.
On the kitchen table stood three bowls of porridge. Goldilocks was hungry from her walk, so she tasted the porridge in the great big bowl, but it was too hot. She tasted the porridge in the middle sized bowl, but it was too cold. Then she tasted the porridge in the little bowl, and it was neither too hot nor too cold but just right, so she ate it all up.
Three of everything
In the front room stood three chairs. Goldilocks climbed into the great big chair, but it was too hard. She climbed into the middle sized chair, but it was too soft. Then she climbed into the little chair, and it was just right, until it creaked, and cracked, and broke clean into pieces beneath her.
Upstairs she found three beds. She lay down on the great big bed, but it was too hard. She lay down on the middle sized bed, but it was too soft. Then she lay down on the little bed, and it was just right, and she was so tired from her long walk that she fell fast asleep.
The bears come home
Before long the three bears came home from their walk, hungry for their porridge. Somebody has been eating my porridge, growled the great big father bear. Somebody has been eating my porridge, said the middle sized mother bear. Then the baby bear looked in his bowl and said, somebody has been eating my porridge, and they have eaten it all up.
In the front room they found the great big chair a little crooked, and the middle sized chair a little crooked, and then the baby bear cried, somebody has been sitting in my chair, and they have broken it all to pieces. Upstairs they found the great big bed with its cover pulled awry, and the middle sized bed the same, and then the baby bear looked at his own small bed and said, somebody has been lying in my bed, and she is still here.
Just right
Goldilocks woke to find three bears looking down at her, and she was so frightened that she jumped straight out of the little bed, ran to the open window, climbed out, and ran away through the wood as fast as her legs would carry her, never once stopping to look back.
She never found her way back to the cottage again, and the three bears never did discover who their small visitor had been. But Goldilocks remembered that morning for a long time afterward, and she was more careful, from then on, about which doors she pushed open, and which bowls and chairs and beds were truly hers to try.
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Cornwall Lullaby
Play this softly while you read Goldilocks aloud: a traditional lullaby from Cornwall, the same green corner of England the three bears might call home.
More stories, more lullabies
This is one tale in a growing collection of traditional stories from around the world, each one paired, where we can, with a real lullaby from the same culture.