Every grown-up already knows these stories. The Fox and the Grapes. The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The Hare and the Tortoise. Somebody told them to us once, and somewhere between then and now most of us stopped passing them on.

Here they are again — thirty-six fables and folk tales, retold in clear, careful English for a reader of eight to twelve. Each one is short enough to finish before the light goes off, and written to be read aloud.

There are no pictures, and that is deliberate. A child of this age does not need to be shown a lion. They need to be trusted to imagine one.

Four traditions in one volume: Aesop, the Panchatantra from India, the Nasreddin Hodja stories told across Turkey and Central Asia, and the Brothers Grimm. Not one country's folklore, but the stories that travelled.

What they leave behind is the point: that a promise costs something, that clever is not the same as wise, and that the steady thing is usually the thing that arrives. Nothing is moralised at the reader. A child who can say what happened has got it.

INSIDE THIS COLLECTION

The Stories Behind the Sayings — The Fox and the Grapes; The Boy Who Cried Wolf; The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs; The Lion's Share; The Dog in the Manger; Belling the Cat; The Hare and the Tortoise; The Jackdaw and the Borrowed Feathers

Short and Sharp — The Ant and the Grasshopper; The Fox and the Crow; The Lion and the Mouse; The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse; The Crow and the Pitcher; The Fox and the Stork; The Dog and His Reflection; The Wolf and the Crane; The Wolf and the Lamb; The Donkey in the Lion's Skin; The Miser and His Gold; The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing; The Bear and the Two Travellers; The Bundle of Sticks

The Wise Fool — Eat, My Coat, Eat; Riding Backwards; The Pot That Had a Baby; Whose Donkey Is It

The Long Way Round — The Drum in the Forest; The Monkey and the Crocodile; The Tortoise Who Would Not Keep Quiet; The Blue Jackal; The Lion, the Bull and the Jackal; The Crows and the Snake; The Hare Who Outwitted the Lion

Told in the North — The Bremen Town Musicians; Hans in Luck; The Wolf and the Seven Children

A note at the back explains what was written fresh, and names the source edition behind every tale, so a reader can go further.

Each tale is a short chapter on its own, so this works as a bedtime book that finishes in one sitting, and as a gift for a reader of eight to twelve who is ready for a chapter book without pictures.

Ages 8-12. 100 pages. A book to be kept, and handed on.