When classic stories are switched on, the first step of the book maker, "Who is in your story?", shows a row headed "A story you know". Each button is a story many families already know, such as "The Three Little Pigs" or "The Tortoise and the Hare". Your child can press one, and then chooses who is in the story and where it happens as usual. Pip says "You are in the story of" the one they picked, and the book retells that story with the characters and the place your child chose.
Nothing is picked for your child. The row is off until they press a story, pressing the same story again lets it go, and only one can be picked at a time.
The stories
| Story | For ages |
|---|---|
| "The Three Little Pigs" | 2 to 9 |
| "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" | 2 to 9 |
| "Jack and the Beanstalk" | 5 to 12 |
| "The Tortoise and the Hare" | 2 to 12 |
| "The Little Red Hen" | 2 to 9 |
| "Stone Soup" | 5 to 12 |
| "The Gingerbread Man" | 2 to 9 |
| "The Lion and the Mouse" | 2 to 12 |
| "The Ugly Duckling" | 5 to 12 |
| "The Elves and the Shoemaker" | 5 to 9 |
| "The Owl and the Pussycat" | 2 to 9 |
| "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" | 5 to 12 |
Your child only sees the stories for their age. We may stop offering a story at any time, and then its button is not shown.
Told gently
Every story keeps its shape and its best-known lines, and some things never happen in any of them, whatever the old version says. Nobody is eaten, cooked or hurt. The wolf in "The Three Little Pigs" ends up tired, wet or friendly. Jack does not steal from the giant, and nobody falls from the beanstalk. Nobody eats the Gingerbread Man. In "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" nobody is harmed, and a witch, if there is one, is outwitted and flies away.
The youngest readers get softer versions still, and the rules for your child's age group apply on top.
Why these stories
Every story on the list is a folk tale, a fable or a book first published before 1931, which means nobody owns it in the United States. The films, cartoons and later picture books made from these stories do belong to somebody, so we never copy them. The pictures are our own, the characters are drawn in our own way, and the names later versions gave to characters, such as a film's name for the Gingerbread Man, are not used. Dorothy's shoes are silver, as they are in the 1900 book.
Some old stories are not on the list although their words are free, because their names or pictures are still somebody's trademark. Peter Rabbit and Winnie-the-Pooh are two of them. If your child types one of those names as a hero's name, they are asked to pick a name of their own, as with any other character that belongs to somebody else.
A classic story book
A classic story book is an ordinary book in every other way. It uses books, is checked in the same way as any other, and follows the limits you have set. Where the book maker offers three ideas to pick from before a book is written, it does not offer them for a classic story, because your child has already picked the story. If a story stops being offered between your child pressing it and pressing "Make it", they are asked to pick another one.
Teachers can make a class book inside a classic story too. The class book form has a list called "A story the class knows", with the stories for the class's age.
The book maker explains the other steps, and Topics to leave out explains the limits you can set.