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Fairy Tale Trivia Questions for Kids and Families
Once upon a time there were thirty fairy tale and fable trivia questions, going from easy to hard, each with its answer and a fun fact about where the story came from.
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Easy fairy tale trivia questions for kids
1.In 'Snow White', what does the queen ask her magic mirror?
Who is the fairest of them all. In the Grimms' tale, the mirror first names Snow White as fairer when she is seven years old.
2.What happens to Pinocchio's nose when he tells a lie?
It grows longer. Pinocchio was written by the Italian author Carlo Collodi in the 1880s.
3.In 'Rapunzel', what does the prince climb to reach her in the tower?
Her long hair. Rapunzel is named after a leafy plant used in salads.
4.In 'The Ugly Duckling', what does the duckling grow up to be?
A swan. The story first appeared in 1843 in a book called 'New Fairy Tales'.
5.In Aesop's fable, which insect works hard all summer while the grasshopper plays?
The ant. The fable's lesson: there's a time for work and a time for play.
6.In 'Sleeping Beauty', what sharp object does the princess prick herself on?
A spindle. Charles Perrault called his French version 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood'.
7.In 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff', who lives under the bridge?
A troll. The tale comes from Norway.
8.In the Grimms' 'The Frog King', what does the princess drop into the well?
Her golden ball. 'The Frog King' has always been the very first story in the Grimms' collection.
9.In Perrault's 'Cinderella', what does the fairy godmother turn into a coach?
A pumpkin. She also turns six mice into horses and six lizards into footmen.
10.In the Grimms' 'The Elves and the Shoemaker', what do the tiny elves make at night?
Shoes. To thank them, the shoemaker and his wife sew them little shirts, jackets and trousers.
11.In Aesop's 'The Lion and the Mouse', how does the tiny mouse save the trapped lion?
It gnaws through the ropes of the hunter's net. The fable's lesson: a kindness is never wasted.
12.In the English tale 'Henny-Penny', what does the hen think is falling when something hits her on the head?
The sky. On her way to tell the king, she meets Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles and Goosey-poosey.
Medium fairy tale trivia questions
13.In Perrault's 'Little Red Riding Hood', what does her mother send her to take to her grandmother?
A cake and a little pot of butter. Charles Perrault published a version of the tale in France in 1697.
14.In 'Beauty and the Beast', what does Beauty's father take from the Beast's garden?
A rose. A famous French version was written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756.
15.In Andersen's 'The Emperor's New Clothes', who finally says out loud that the emperor has nothing on?
A little child. Swindlers claimed their cloth was invisible to anyone who was unfit for his job.
16.In Andersen's 'Thumbelina', what does the tiny girl use as a cradle?
A walnut shell. She is no taller than a thumb and first appears sitting inside a tulip.
17.In Andersen's 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier', what makes the hero different from his 24 brothers?
He has only one leg. All 25 soldiers were made from one old tin spoon, and the tin ran short for the last one.
18.In Aesop's 'The North Wind and the Sun', what are they trying to make a traveler take off?
His cloak. The Sun wins by shining warmly. The lesson: gentleness wins where force fails.
19.In Aesop's 'The Fox and the Crow', what does the crow drop when the fox flatters her into singing?
A piece of cheese. The fox praises her feathers and says one song would make her Queen of Birds.
20.In the Grimms' 'The Brave Little Tailor', what does the tailor swat seven of with one blow?
Flies. He stitches 'Seven with one blow' on a banner, and a giant thinks he means seven men.
21.In the Grimms' 'The Town Musicians of Bremen', which animal is the first to set off for Bremen?
A donkey. The donkey, dog, cat and rooster stack up on each other's backs to scare robbers away.
22.In the Norwegian tale 'Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed', how does the bear lose his long tail?
It freezes into the ice while he fishes with it. A sly fox who had stolen some fish told him to fish by dipping his tail through a hole in the ice.
Hard fairy tale trivia questions for adults
23.In the Arabian Nights, Sinbad the Sailor finds a huge white egg on an island. Which giant bird does it belong to?
A roc. Sinbad escapes the island by tying himself to the bird's foot with his turban.
24.In the Japanese tale of Urashima Taro, which animal carries the fisher lad to the Sea King's palace?
A tortoise. Before he goes home, he is given a box called a tamate-bako and told never to open it.
25.In the Japanese tale 'The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Child', where does the princess go home to at the end?
The Moon. The old bamboo cutter first finds her, only three inches tall, inside a hollow bamboo stem.
26.In a folk tale from southern Nigeria, the Sun and Moon moved up into the sky after which friend came to visit and filled their house?
Water. The Sun built a huge new compound because Water said his old house was too small for all of Water's people.
27.In a Dakota story retold by Zitkala-Sa, which animal outsmarts the trickster Iktomi after he refuses to share his fish?
A muskrat. The muskrat's advice: next time, invite a visiting friend to sit beside you.
28.In the Grimms' 'The Fisherman and His Wife', what kind of magic fish grants the wife's wishes?
A flounder (an enchanted prince). The wife keeps wishing for more and more, until she ends up back in her old shack.
29.In the Grimms' 'Mother Holle', what happens on earth when the girl shakes out Mother Holle's feather bed?
It snows. In the German region of Hesse, people used to say Mother Holle was making her bed when it snowed.
30.In the Grimms' 'Snow-White and Rose-Red', which animal knocks on the sisters' door one snowy evening?
A bear. Outside their cottage grew two rose trees, one with white roses and one with red.
Ways to use these fairy tale questions
Read a fairy tale aloud at bedtime, then ask its question over breakfast to see who was really listening. On a library visit, let kids pick questions for tales they can find on the shelf, from Andersen's Thumbelina to the Japanese moon princess found in a bamboo stem, and check out the book to go with it. Teachers can pair the Aesop questions with a lesson on morals, having students guess each fable's lesson before the answer is read. For a storybook birthday party, hand out a paper crown for every right answer, and use the Nigerian, Dakota and Norwegian tales for a map game: find where each story was first told.
Play Fairy Tales trivia together
Room Trivia has a whole fairy tales category with different questions: four answers to pick from, points for speed, and a scoreboard. Put it on a TV or laptop and everyone answers on their own phone. Free, with no app and no account.