Beauty and the Beast Coloring Pages
Beauty and the Beast is a French fairy tale that's nearly 300 years old, and it's one of the sweetest love stories I know. In the oldest versions the heroine is simply called Beauty, and Belle is just the French word for beautiful. Our version keeps my favourite part of the old tale, the castle full of invisible helpers. A famous French movie from 1946 even showed them as arms reaching right out of the walls to hold up the candles! At heart it's a story about looking past the outside of someone to find the kind heart underneath.
Jump to: The Apples | Lonely Castle | The Storm | Rose Garden | Supper | Going Home | The Spell Breaks
The Apples on the Road
Once there was a prince who was so busy thinking about himself that he never noticed anyone else. One market day he strolled through the village with his nose in the air. An old woman in a plain shawl stumbled right in front of him and her basket of apples went rolling across the road. The prince didn't even look down. He stepped around the apples and kept on walking.
Then the old woman stood up straight and let her shawl fall away. She wasn't an old woman at all. She was an enchantress, tall and grand in a long cloak and pearls.
She wasn't angry with him, just a little disappointed. "You need to learn to see other people," she told him, and with a wave of her hand he became a Beast. The spell would only break when he learned to be kind and someone loved him just as he was.
A Lonely Castle
The Beast hid away in his castle at the edge of the forest. Years went by and nobody ever came to visit. His only company was a household of invisible helpers. You couldn't see them at all except for their hands, which floated along with wisps of smoke trailing behind. They lit the candles and cooked the meals and dusted the long empty halls.
The Beast stomped and grumbled all day long, and his roar rattled the windows. But late at night he'd sit by the fire and wonder if anyone could ever like a face like his. The helpers knew he was only grumpy because he was lonely. They kept hoping someone would come along and prove it.
Lost in the Storm
One evening a young woman named Belle was walking home from the next village when a storm rolled in. The rain poured down and the path disappeared in the dark, and soon she had no idea which way home was.
Then she saw a little light bobbing between the trees. It was a candle, held up by two floating hands! Belle was too surprised to be scared. The hands beckoned her to follow and led her along a winding path until a great castle rose out of the trees. The doors swung open by themselves, and inside a warm fire was already crackling away.
The Rose Garden
The storm was still rumbling the next morning, so Belle went exploring. Behind the castle she found a garden full of the loveliest roses she'd ever seen. She picked just one and tucked it into her hair.
That's when she heard a ROAR. The Beast came stomping down the path, furious that someone had touched his roses. Belle's knees were shaking, but she looked him right in the eye and said she was sorry. She hadn't known the garden was his, and she'd only wanted one.
Nobody had said sorry to the Beast in years, and he didn't quite know what to do about it. He grumbled for a bit. Then he told her she could stay until the storm was over.
A Very Polite Beast
That night the hands set out a feast, and the Beast tried his very best to be polite. He wasn't good at it. He slurped his soup so loudly that the candles flickered, and when he pulled out Belle's chair he pulled it right across the room. Belle laughed until she had to wipe her eyes, and after a moment the Beast laughed too.
The storm passed but Belle stayed on. She read to him in the library and they walked in the rose garden, and each day he got a little gentler.
One afternoon a helper dropped a whole tray of apples and they went rolling across the floor. The Beast stopped. Then he knelt down and picked up every last apple himself. The hands burst into applause, and somewhere far away the enchantress smiled.
Going Home and Coming Back
After a while Belle began to miss her village. She tried to hide it, but the Beast noticed, which was something new for him. He told her she was free to go home. It nearly broke his heart to say it, but he said it anyway.
Back home Belle couldn't stop thinking about him. She thought about his terrible table manners and the way he'd knelt down for those apples. She thought about how quiet the castle must be without her. So she turned around and ran all the way back.
She found the Beast sitting alone in the rose garden, looking sadder than she'd ever seen him. "I missed you," she told him. "I care about you just the way you are."
The Spell Breaks
Right then the garden began to glow, and there stood the enchantress. She wore a small smug half smile, the look of someone who'd known all along how this would turn out. "You've learned to notice people," she said. "And someone loves you just as you are." With a wave of her hand the fur and horns melted away, and the Beast was a prince again.
He looked just the way he used to, except for one thing. His nose wasn't in the air anymore.
That night the helpers threw the biggest party the castle had ever seen. They baked a cake as tall as the front door and kept the music playing until morning. Belle and the prince lived happily ever after, although he still growled a little whenever supper was late.