Read Children's Stories in English — and understand every line.
Read “Children's Stories” by Oscar Wilde in English. Tap any word for its meaning, hear how it sounds, and save it to a memory-driven review schedule.
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DICTIONARY
TRANSLATION
apreciar, atesorar
to feel warm affection for; to hold something dear.
Tap a word for its translation and part of speech — then save it to your list.
The opening
How “Children's Stories” begins
It was the birthday of the Infanta.
She was just twelve years of age, and the sun was shining brightly in the gardens of the palace.
Although she was a real Princess and the Infanta of Spain, she had only one birthday every year, just like the children of quite poor people, so it was naturally a matter of great importance to the whole country that she should have a really fine day for the occasion.
And a really fine day it certainly was.
Public domain — the whole book is yours to read in the app.
Vocabulary
Words to know before you start
The 30 words you will meet most often in “Children's Stories” at level B1 and above, with how many times each one appears.
- soul
- rose
- prince
- indeed
- rocket
- weep
- lip
- priest
- giant
- seek
- kiss
- merchant
- nay
- hang
- wing
- pearl
- suffer
- surely
- pale
- master
- joy
- court
- pray
- slave
- dwarf
- cloak
- tear
- evil
- wander
- bitter
The meanings here are the everyday ones. In the reader, tap a word to see the sense this sentence uses.
Grammar
Grammar you will meet in “Children's Stories”
How much of each kind of grammar “Children's Stories” uses, counted in the sentences the Reader marks: per 10,000 words, compared with the other books in the library.
- Relative clauses
- Perfect tenses
- Passive voice
- Reported speech
- Modal verbs
- Phrasal verbs
- -ing forms and to-infinitives
- Conditionals
Constructions to look for
- At/on/in (time) At noon the yellow lions come down to the water’s edge to drink.
- Subject relative clause with who/that/which The dead staff blossomed, and bare lilies that were whiter than pearls.
- Past perfect active After they had gone he felt lonely, and began to tire of his ladylove.
Counted the way the Reader shows it: one card per construction in a sentence. Open the book in the Reader and tap a highlighted phrase to see the rule.
Library
What you get while you read
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Tap to translate
Tap any word to see what it means in this exact sentence — with pronunciation and a clear example.
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Save what matters
Add a word and it comes back on a spaced-repetition schedule timed to how memory actually works.
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Grammar in context
Notable structures light up in the text, with a short explanation tied to the sentence you're reading.
About the book
Why Children's Stories is a great book to read in English
The Happy Prince, the Selfish Giant, the Nightingale and the Rose — Wilde's fairy tales are short, beautiful, and quietly heartbreaking. The sentences are simple but the feelings are not, which makes these stories a favourite early step into real English literature.
On LangOrbit you read “Children's Stories” with a safety net: the translation is one tap away when a sentence runs long, every word opens its meaning in context and can be saved for spaced-repetition review, and the grammar behind the trickier lines is explained right where you meet it.
Keep reading
More books to read in English
Every title opens with the same dictionary, grammar help, and translation — start reading for free.
Children's Stories
Read “Children's Stories” by Oscar Wilde in English. Tap any word for its meaning, hear how it sounds, and save it to a memory-driven review schedule.
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