Hello everyone. My name is Yana and I am from Little Angel Theatre, and today
I'm going to be reading you Thumbelina
Once upon a time, a woman lived by herself in a faraway village. She was
very lonely after her husband had died. She always wanted to have children but
alas, she didn't have any. One day, she went to her friend who was a good witch
She gave her a grain of barley and told her to go home and plant it. The woman
did as she was told. The next morning, a beautiful plant had grown from the seed. It
had a lovely flower that looked like a tulip. The woman had never seen a flower
like that and was mesmerised by its beauty. She gently kissed one of its
petals. As she did that, the flower blossom opened. Inside it was a beautiful
little girl, no bigger than the size of the woman's
thumb. The woman instantly fell in love with her and called her Thumbelina
Thumbelina took away the woman's loneliness. In the day, she would tell her
stories and talk to her. Sometimes she would make Thumbelina a boat out of a
tulip petal, which she could row in a plate full of water. At night, Thumbelina
would sleep in a bed made out of a walnut shell, with a blanket made of rose petal
One night, as she was sleeping, a frog came to her window and saw her. He
thought to himself, "What a beautiful girl. Oh, she'd make a lovely bride for my son."
And so he grabbed Thumbelina and hopped away to his home. When his son saw his
bride-to-be, oh, he
was very happy. "She's beautiful, Father, I'll marry her. But before that, I want to
build her a beautiful house." "Okay, son, I'll put her on the waterlily in the
middle of the pond until then. This way, she'll not be able to escape." And so the frog
put Thumbelina in the middle of the pond on a waterlily leaf. Thumbelina tried to
escape from her new home, but she couldn't, and she broke down crying. Two
minnows were sitting under the same leaf and they heard her cry. They asked her
about her troubles and when she told them, they decided to help her. They
nibbled away the lily stem. Soon it broke and floated away with Thumbelina, and
just when Thumbelina thought she was free, a beetle came down and took her
away to his home. He called over his friends to introduce them to his pretty
prisoner, but the beetle's friends told him that she was too different to them and
she didn't belong there. "Hmm, I agree. I think we should let her go,"
thought the beetle, and so he dropped her in the grass
Well, Thumbelina was very happy that she was free from her captors, however, she
did not know where her home was. She spent many days in the grass in between
the flowers. She would eat the pollen of the flowers and drink the dew from their
leaves. One day, as she was walking, she stumbled upon a small house made of mud
It had a strange, round entrance. She went up to it and knocked on the door. A mouse
opened the door. "Oh, hello. Isn't it cold out there for you today? Oh, come in, please." "Oh, thank you very much," said
Thumbelina. Once Thumbelina was settled comfortably in the mouse's house, he
asked her about who she was. Thumbelina told him the entire story
"Well, don't worry. You can stay here as long as you like,"
said the mouse, so Thumbelina stayed in her new home. To make herself useful in
the house, she would cook for the mouse and tell him stories. After a few days
the mouse said he had invited a guest over. "He's the richest mouse in all the
land. He's a very good friend of mine." That night, the mouse's friend came over
for dinner. They all talked and had a good time. During the course of the
dinner, the friend fell in love with Thumbelina and declared that he would
marry her. Thumbelina had no choice but to go along with what was happening. When
the friend offered to show her his home, she agreed to visit his house, and the three of them set off together. On the way
they entered a tunnel. There they found an injured swallow lying on the ground
The mouse's friend kicked it and ruefully said, "Well, serves her right
What is she doing in the tunnels? She should've stayed in the air." Thumbelina
was shocked to see that someone could treat another like this. Unseen by the
mice, she ran away from there. Once she was sure that the mice had left, she came
back and attended to the swallow. She took great care of her until she was fit
to fly it again. It became spring by the time the swallow could fly again. She told
Thumbelina, "Well, I have to join my family and friends. They have flown away to a
warmer place. Oh, I cannot stay here. Come with me." But Thumbelina had had
enough adventure and didn't want to go anywhere. And so the swallow flew away. A
few months had passed when the lovestruck friend of the mouse found
Thumbelina again. "Oh, my beloved, I've been looking for you everywhere. Now I've found
you, and I must marry you."
Thumbelina knew there was no way out for her, so she asked him if she could spend
one last day out in the open air before she was confined to living the rest of
her life underground with him. As she roamed in the open fields for one last time, she
heard a familiar voice. "Come away with me, where your spirit will be free," said the
swallow. Thumbelina saw her old friend who had returned to her
This time around, she agreed, and hopped on the back of the swallow and they took
off. They flew over land and water and fields of green. When they reached the
land of the flowers, the swallow landed Thumbelina on a beautiful flower petal
"This is the kingdom of the flowers and that is their king," told the swallow
Thumbelina saw a handsome young king with beautiful wings. He was surrounded
by lovely flowers. As soon as she saw him, she knew she wanted to call
this place home. Her presence attracted the king's attention, who too fell in love
with her immediately. "Will you marry me?" asked the king. "Yes!" replied Thumbelina
with a big smile. As happiness spread across her face, she grew a beautiful
pair of wings and became the flower queen. Soon, they got married, and lived
happily ever after. The end.