Los 9 mejores cuentos en inglés para niños

La lectura de cuentos en inglés puede ayudar a los niños a mejorar su vocabulario y su comprensión de un texto en inglés. Para ayudarle a adquirir estas competencias, te presentamos una selección de bonitos cuentos en inglés para niños. Son relatos clásicos y bien conocidos con los que pasarán un buen rato y mejorarán su nivel de inglés. 

1. Perseus and Medusa. Cuento mitológico en inglés para niños

Long long time ago, in the age of gods and heroes, three horrible sisters lived in the region of Atlas who were known as Gorgons. The most terrible of the three was called Medusa.

From Medusa?s head, instead of hair, living snakes came out. And when Medusa saw the face of a man, dog or living being, the man, the dog and the living being were immediately turned into statues of stone.

During years, a lot of brave and well armed heroes had come to the region of Atlas to kill Medusa. None could kill her. Warriors and warriors were seen in all parts in different attitudes, but motionless and stiff.

Then Perseus, son of Jupiter, came. Perseus knew how dangerous were Medusa?s eyes but he was very well prepared. He had a curved sword a present from god Mercury.

He had a very hard shield made out of bronze and as plain as a mirror. And he had also wings which flied each time that he put them in his hills.

He arrived flying. But instead of throwing himself against Medusa, he remained far only worrying about not looking her to the face, not seeing her eyes under no circumstances.

And as it was necessary to spy her all the time, he used the bronze shield as a mirror to watch all that she was doing.

Medusa was going from one place to another, making efforts to scare Perseus. She cried horrible things and the snakes of her head where moving and whistling furiously. But she never got that Perseus watched her directly.

Tired, she fell asleep. Her terrible eyes closed and little by little, her snakes also fell asleep. Then Perseus came without making noise and cut her head off with just one cut.

During all his life, he kept Medusa?s head which he used many times to turn his enemies into stone.

Lee el cuento de Perseo y Medusa en español

2. The dove and the ant. Cuento en inglés para niños

A dove saw an ant fall into a brook. The Ant struggled in vain to reach the bank, and in pity, the dove dropped a blade of straw close beside it. Clinging to the straw like a shipwrecked sailor to a broken spar, the Ant floated safely to shore.

Soon after, the ant saw a man getting ready to kill the dove with a stone. But just as he cast the stone, the ant stung him in the heel, so that the pain made him miss his aim, and the startled dove flew to safety in a distant wood.

Moral of the fable: a kindness is never wasted.

Fábula de la paloma y la hormiga en español

3. Cuento en inglés The ugly duckling (El patito feo)

Once upon a time down on an old farm, lived a duck family, and Mother Duck had been sitting on a clutch of new eggs. One nice morning, the eggs hatched and out popped six chirpy ducklings.

But one egg was bigger than the rest, and it didn´t hatch. Mother Duck couldn´t recall laying that seventh egg. How did it get there? TOCK! TOCK! The little prisoner was pecking inside his shell.

-"Did I count the eggs wrongly?"

Mother Duck wondered. But before she had time to think about it, the last egg finally hatched.

A strange looking duckling with gray feathers that should have been yellow gazed at a worried mother. The ducklings grew quickly, but Mother Duck had a secret worry.

- "I can´t understand how this uglyduckling can be one of mine!" she said to herself, shaking her head as she looked at her last born.

Well, the gray duckling certainly wasn´t pretty, and since he ate far more than his brothers, he was outgrowing them. As the days went by, the poor ugly duckling became more and more unhappy. His brothers didn´t want to play with him, he was so clumsy, and all the farmyard folks simply laughed at him.

Sigue leyendo El patito feo en inglés

4. Cuento en inglés: El león y el ratón (The Lion and the Mouse)

Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him.

-Pardon, O King -cried the little Mouse-. Forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?

The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go.

Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on.

Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts.

-Was I not right? -said the little Mouse.

Little friends may prove great friends

The end

5. Cuento en inglés: The fox and the crow (El zorro y el cuervo)

One bright morning as the fox was following his sharp nose through the wood in search of a bite to eat, he saw a crow on the limb of a tree overhead. This was by no means the first crow the fox had ever seen. What caught his attention this time and made him stop for a second look, was that the lucky crow held a bit of cheese in his beak.

- No need to search any farther, thought sly master fox. Here is a dainty bite for my breakfast.

Up he trotted to the foot of the tree in which the crow was sitting, and looking up admiringly, he cried:

- Good-morning, beautiful creature!

The crow, his head cocked on one side, watched the fox suspiciously. But he kept his beak tightly closed on the cheese and did not return his greeting.

- What a charming creature he is! said the fox. How his feathers shine! What a beautiful form and what splendid wings! Such a wonderful bird should have a very lovely voice, since everything else about him is so perfect. Could he sing just one song, I know I should hail him King of Birds.

Listening to these flattering words, the crow forgot all his suspicion, and also his breakfast. He wanted very much to be called King of Birds. So he opened his beak wide to utter his loudest caw, and down fell the cheese straight into the fox's open mouth.

- Thank you, said master fox sweetly, as he walked off. Though it is cracked, you have a voice sure enough. But where are your wits?

Moral of the fable: do not rely on the praises of others. Do not trust who only exalts you.

6. The ant and the grasshopper: Cuentos en inglés para niños

In a field one summer´s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart´s content.

An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

- "Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"

-"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same."

- "Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present."

But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.

When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

Lee el cuento de la cigarra y la hormiga en español  

7. Cuento en inglés: The wolf and the lamb

A stray Lamb stood drinking early one morning on the bank of a woodland stream. That very same morning a hungry Wolf came by farther up the stream, hunting for something to eat. He soon got his eyes on the Lamb. As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones about it, but this Lamb looked so very helpless and innocent that the Wolf felt he ought to have some kind of an excuse for taking its life.

- How dare you paddle around in my stream and stir up all the mud! he shouted fiercely. You deserve to be punished severely for your rashness!

- But, your highness, replied the trembling Lamb, don't be angry! I cannot possibly muddy the water you are drinking up there. Remember, you are upstream and I am downstream.

- You do muddy it! retorted the Wolf savagely. And besides, I have heard that you told lies about me last year! How could I have done so? pleaded the Lamb. I wasn't born until this year.

- If it wasn't you, it was your brother!

- I have no brothers.

- Well, then, snarled the Wolf, It was someone in your family anyway. But no matter who it was, I do not intend to be talked out of my breakfast.

And without more words the Wolf seized the poor Lamb and carried her off to the forest.

Moral of the fable: The tyrant can always find an excuse for his tyranny and the unjust will not listen to the reasoning of the innocent.

8. Caperucita roja en inglés (Little Red Riding Hood)

Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl. Everyone who saw her liked her, but most of all her grandmother, who did not know what to give the child next.

Once she gave her a little cap made of red velvet. Because it suited her so well, and she wanted to wear it all the time, she came to be known as Little Red Cap.

One day her mother said to her,

- Come Little Red Cap. Here is a piece of cakeand a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother. She is sick and weak, and they will do her well. Mind your manners and give her my greetings.

Behave yourself on the way, and do not leave the path, or you might fall down and break the glass, and then there will be nothing for your sick grandmother.

Little Red Cap promised to obey her mother. The grandmother lived out in the woods, a half hour from the village. When Little Red Cap entered the woods a wolf came up to her. She did not know what a wicked animal he was, and was not afraid of him.

Sigue leyendo el cuento en inglés de Caperucita Roja 

9. Gingerbread man, cuento navideño en inglés

An old woman was baking one day, and she made some gingerbread. She had some dough left over,so she made the shape of a little man. She made eyes for him, a nose and a smiling mouth all of currants, and placed more currants down his front to look like buttons.

Then she laid him on a baking tray and put him into the oven to bake.
After a little while, she heard something rattling at the oven door. She opened it and to her surprise out jumped the little gingerbread man she had made. She tried to catch him as he ran across the kitchen, but he slipped past her, calling as he ran: 

- "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

She chased after him into the garden where her husband was digging. He put down his spade and tried to catch him too, but as the gingerbread man sped past him he called over his shoulder:

- "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

As he ran down the road he passed a cow. The cow called out,

- "Stop, gingerbread man! You look good to eat!"

But the gingerbread man laughed and shouted over his shoulder:

-  "I´ve run from an old woman And an old man. Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

The cow ran after the old woman and the old man, and soon they all passed a horse.

- "Stop!" called out the horse, "I´d like to eat you."

">Sigue leyendo Caperucita Roja en inglés