Once upon a time, a kind woman wished for a little child to love. A friendly old flower-seller gave her a tiny barleycorn. "Plant this in a flowerpot," she said. The woman planted it, and soon a big bud grew, red and yellow like a tulip. The woman kissed the bud, and pop! It opened. Sitting in the middle of the flower was a tiny girl, no bigger than a thumb.
"I shall call you Thumbelina," said the woman. Thumbelina's bed was a polished walnut shell, her mattress was violet petals, and her blanket was a single rose petal. In the daytime she rowed a tulip-petal boat across a plate of water, using two horse hairs as oars, and sang la-la-la in a voice as small and clear as a little bell.
One sunny morning, Thumbelina sat on a lily leaf in the stream at the bottom of the garden to watch a blue dragonfly. The breeze gave a little puff, whoo, and the leaf floated gently away. "Oh!" said Thumbelina. But the water was slow and calm, and a white butterfly flew right beside her, so she decided to enjoy the ride. "I'll have a little adventure," she said, "and then I'll find my way home."
The leaf drifted to a muddy bank where Mother Toad lived. "Croak, croak! What a tiny visitor," said Mother Toad kindly. "Would you like to stay and live with us?" Her son blinked his big eyes. "Brek-kek-kex!" Thumbelina smiled. "Thank you very much, but I'm on my way home." "Then have a safe trip," said Mother Toad, and she gave the leaf a friendly nudge back into the stream.
Summer turned to autumn. Thumbelina lived in the meadow, sipping dew from flowers and tasting sweet nectar. She made friends with the beetles and the ladybirds. But when the leaves fell and the first snowflakes floated down, she felt chilly. She knocked on a little door under a wheat field. It was the home of Field Mouse.
"Come in, come in, little one," said Field Mouse. "You may stay with me all winter, if you help me tidy up and tell me stories." Thumbelina swept the floor, swish, swish, and told stories every evening. Field Mouse's neighbour, Mr. Mole, often came to visit. He wore a black velvet coat and was rather grumpy. "Sunshine? Flowers? Silly things," he grumbled. "Underground is the best place of all." But secretly, he loved listening to Thumbelina sing.
One day, in Mr. Mole's long tunnel, Thumbelina found a swallow resting. She was too tired and cold to fly south with the other birds. "Oh, little swallow," whispered Thumbelina. She wove a soft blanket of hay and tucked it around the bird. Every evening she brought her a few warm drops of dew and some seeds. Slowly, slowly, the swallow warmed up. "Thank you," she chirped. "You are so kind."
Even Mr. Mole's heart grew softer. "Well," he muttered, "I suppose that bird may rest in my tunnel." And he dug a little hole in the roof so the sunshine could come in. He squinted up at the light. "Hmm. It's not so bad after all."
When spring came, the swallow was strong enough to fly again. "Climb on my back, Thumbelina! I'll take you wherever you like." Thumbelina hugged Field Mouse and Mr. Mole goodbye and promised to visit. Then whoosh, up they flew, over forests and lakes, to a warm field full of flowers. In the middle of every flower lived a tiny flower-person with little wings. The Flower Prince, no bigger than Thumbelina, bowed and said, "Welcome! Will you be our friend?" And they gave her a pair of shimmering wings of her very own.
Now Thumbelina could fly! First of all, she flew with the swallow back to the kind woman's garden. "My Thumbelina!" cried the woman, with happy tears. And every spring after that, the flower friends came to visit, the swallow built her nest under the roof, and each night Thumbelina curled up in her walnut-shell bed, under her rose-petal blanket, snug and warm and fast asleep.
Parent tip: Hold up your thumb to show how tiny Thumbelina is, then pretend to tuck a rose-petal blanket around your child as the story ends.
Ask your child: After the story, you can ask: “Who was kind in this story, and what did they do?”
This is a gentle retelling where nobody takes Thumbelina away or makes her marry, every creature is kind, and nothing is scary.