Hello and welcome to super great kids' stories, wise tales from storytellers around the

world, which will make you laugh and sometimes cry, recommended from ages 5 to 105.

I'm Kim and I love stories. Hello super great kids, how are you doing? We're continuing with our

theme of fairy tales around the world and the story I'm going to tell you this week is from Brazil

in South America. It's a bit like the Cinderella story that so many of us are familiar with which

comes from France. It's got a princess and a prince in it and someone who helps the princess get to

the palace in a beautiful dress but it's also a little different. Can you guess how many

versions of Cinderella there are in the world? Why don't you have a little think about that while

we have a quick word with the grown-ups? Hello super great kids, did you have a guess how many

different versions of Cinderella there are in the world? No more than 100? No more than 500?

There are, are you ready? Over 1000 versions of the Cinderella story told around the world

and the one we're going to hear today from Brazil was collected and written down by a man called

Silvio Romero over a hundred years ago and it's got a rather unusual fairy godmother.

Can you see if you can spot as you listen? Who you think the fairy godmother is?

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Ready? Mouth open. Story jump out.

Once upon a time in Brazil, or as they say in Brazil, Eroma vez no Brasil. There was a king

and a queen but there was a great sadness in their life. They had no children. Every night the queen

got on her knees and prayed, please god, they used to use poor favor. Send me a child.

Any child, I wouldn't care what I gave birth to even a snake would do.

And the years passed and the years passed and the queen did have a child but there was something

very strange about this child. She had a pale blue snake coiled around her neck.

The midwife, the courtiers didn't know what to do. They got hold of the tail and they pulled

...