A safe place to sit by the fire

01 What children will find

• Short animated folktales from Ghana, told in a cut-paper style.
• Moments where they help a character choose, then see what happens.
• “The story as it was told”, the traditional ending, kept in every episode.
• A short quiz about the story and its lesson.

There is nothing to sign up for, nothing to buy, no advertising and no links out of the player. The only form on the site is the story donation form, which asks children to come with an adult.

02 Age guidance

Folktales teach through consequences, so characters sometimes trick each other, fall or get hurt. We keep these moments brief and never graphic.

Episode 1, Why the Tortoise Has a Cracked Shell: mild peril. The tortoise falls from the sky and his shell cracks; he is patched up and lives on. Suitable for ages 5 and up, best watched with an adult the first time.

03 Using the stories in class

You may screen any episode in schools, libraries and community groups for free. You don’t need to ask, though we love to hear where the stories travel.

A simple lesson shape that works well:

1. Watch the episode together. At each choice, let the class vote.
2. Watch “the story as it was told” and compare it with the class’s ending.
3. Take the quiz as a group and talk about the lesson.
4. Ask children whether their family tells the story differently, then share those versions with us.

04 Respect for the stories and their people

• We name the community and the version every episode comes from.
• Our characters and settings reflect the people and places of Ghana: Black Ghanaian people, and clothing, homes and landscapes drawn from the region each story belongs to.
• We clearly label any ending we invented, and the traditional ending is always kept.
• We don’t animate stories that a community keeps sacred or private.
• If we have told a story wrongly, or represented a people unfairly, please tell us at stories@lostlore.org. We will look into it and fix what needs fixing.

05 Report a problem

If you see something on the site that worries you, or something in the story library that shouldn’t be there, write to stories@lostlore.org. We read every message and act on safety concerns first.

06 Reporting a security issue

If you think you have found a security weakness in the site, please email stories@lostlore.org with the details, and give us a reasonable time to fix it before telling anyone else. Please don’t access other people’s information or disrupt the site while testing. We won’t take action against anyone who reports an issue to us in good faith.

07 More fine print

Read our privacy page, terms of use and story donation terms.