The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams takes about 6.5 minutes to read aloud (722 words, about 2 sentences a page), and it lands best with children aged 3-6.
Measured read-aloud timeabout 6.5 minutes
- Words
- 722
- Sentences a page
- 2
- Re-read tolerance
- 5/5still fine on the fortieth reading
- Vocabulary
- 2/5everyday words
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The useful verdict
Why The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything works
Clomp, clomp. Wiggle, wiggle. Shake, shake. The little old lady is followed home by shoes, trousers, a shirt, gloves, a hat and a pumpkin head, and every noise stacks on top of the last, so the final page is the child performing six sounds in sequence from memory. Her solution - give the scarecrow a job - is why nobody ends up frightened.
Before you buy it
The chase through the dark wood is the only tense stretch, and it resolves into a scarecrow, but a three-year-old who is already wary of the dark may need the ending explained before you start.
Themes: Halloween, cumulative tale, sound effects, courage, scarecrows.
Same shape, new story
Books like The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Matched by length, refrain, sentence density, and listener—not just subject.
Straight answers
Questions parents ask about The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
- How long does it take to read The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything aloud?
- About 6.5 minutes at an unhurried pace, from a word count of 722. Reading it fast shaves perhaps a third off; stopping for questions on every page can double it.
- What age is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything actually for?
- Ages 3-6 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 2 sentences a page and vocabulary at 2 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.
- Does The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything survive being read on repeat?
- Yes - this is one of the few that is still fine on the fortieth reading, which is why it scores 5 out of 5 with us.
- Is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything a good book for a child who will not sit still?
- It helps that it has a refrain a child can join in with, and it asks the child questions to answer out loud. Those three features are what keep a wriggling toddler listening, far more than the subject matter does.