This is a short Three Billy Goats Gruff script for one grown-up and one child of about 4 to 6. You read the narration, the troll and the two bigger goats. Your child is the smallest goat, with seven short lines to say after your whisper. Read aloud, with the whispers, it takes about four minutes.
It’s our retelling, The Billy Goats and the Troll: the same bridge, the same troll and the same three goats as the old Norwegian folk tale, with the smallest goat as the hero. That makes it a good part for a small voice, because the lines are short and one of them is a whisper.
Who plays whom: narrator, little goat, big goat, troll
| Part | Played by | Their lines |
|---|---|---|
| The narrator | You | Everything between the lines |
| The smallest goat | Your child | “Trip, trap,” “Only me,” “I am very small,” and four more |
| The troll | You | “Nobody crosses,” “Nobody,” “WHO is walking on MY bridge?” |
| The middle goat and the big goat | You | “Wait for my brother,” “He is enormous,” “Come up, then” |
Sit side by side with the script on a phone or tablet. When it’s your child’s turn, whisper the line and let them say it back in their own way. It doesn’t have to match the words.
The script: scene by scene at the bridge
Your child’s lines are highlighted. The small notes under some lines say how to play them.
How to do the troll voice
- Go low, not loud. Drop your voice into your chest and slow down. A slow, grumbly troll is funnier than a shouting one, and at bedtime it’s calmer too.
- Land on two words. In “WHO is walking on MY bridge?” put the weight on WHO and MY, and say the rest quietly.
- Wait before “Nobody.” The troll is stating a rule, so say it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
- Let him be grumpy, not wicked. In scene 5 he lies back down in the mud because he doesn’t like getting up twice. Grin when you do that bit.
More character voices in how to do voices when reading to kids.
If your child wants to be the troll
Plenty of children want the troll. Let them. The troll has three short lines, “Nobody crosses,” “Nobody” and “WHO is walking on MY bridge?”, so there is little to remember. Whisper each one and let your child roar it.
You take the smallest goat. Whisper your own lines in your tiniest voice. A child who has just roared as the troll will enjoy hearing a grown-up squeak. More ways to bring your child in are in how to make bedtime stories interactive.
Short on time? The two-scene version
Read the first narrator line to set the scene, then jump to scenes 4 and 5. Your child gets four lines and the best joke in the story, when the smallest goat sends the troll off to wait for a bigger dinner. Stop at “lay back down in the mud.”
Record it and play it back
A script is more fun when you can hear it afterwards. Record it on your phone in short pieces, as in how to record a bedtime story for your child.
Or let Nanuli do the work. The whole story is ready in the app: eight painted scenes, the parts marked, and the smallest goat takes your child’s name. They say their lines after your whisper, and then the story plays back with the pictures moving to your voices.
