Khaleh Suskeh (Auntie Beetle): a Persian folk tale retold in English
Khaleh Suskeh (خاله سوسکه), "Auntie Beetle", is a classic Persian nursery tale about a little beetle in red shoes and an onion-skin veil who sets off to find a husband, and asks each suitor the same question: "What will you hit me with?" Traditional versions often end sadly; Azizan's Persian retelling keeps the funny, rhythmic question-and-answer and a gentle ending, so it suits ages 2–4 and can be recorded on video by a parent or grandparent.
Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.
The story in short (Azizan's version)
Khaleh Suskeh, a small beetle under a flowerpot, tells her dear father she wants to see the world. He laughs: "Go, my flower, go safely."
She puts on a thin onion-skin veil and a pair of tiny red shoes and sets off hopping toward Hamadan to find a kind husband.
The butcher asks where she is going. "To find a husband. How will you hit me?" "With my cleaver!" She says it is far too sharp and scary and walks on.
The grocer says he would hit her with a rough broom. She says no thank you: she is a little flower, not dust from the yard.
It gets dark and she sits tired on a small stone and sighs: "Where is my kind husband?"
Mr Mouse comes politely out of his hole and asks the same question. He says he never hits anyone, he would only stroke her gently with his soft tail.
They hold hands, the animals gather round, a sparrow sings and a butterfly dances. They go home to a small warm house, and Khaleh Suskeh puts her red shoes by the door.
How this differs from the traditional versions
In many well-known versions the mouse leaves the beetle in charge of the soup pot, she steps away and he falls into it. That ending is sad and unsuitable for bedtime for the youngest children.
Azizan's version stops at the happy home and keeps the question-and-answer repetition, which is the heart of the tale.
Details and rhymes differ between regions and families; you may remember a different one.
Why it works for young children
A repeated question: the same words with a new answer each time is something toddlers can chant along with.
A small hero who says no: Khaleh Suskeh turns down suitors who frighten her and waits for the gentle one.
Cosy ending: the red shoes by the door make a good last image before sleep.
Reading it aloud
Use a big voice for the butcher, a gruff one for the grocer and a shy whisper for Mr Mouse. Pause before each "How will you hit me?" so the child can say it with you. The story is full of sounds (tap-tap shoes), which grandparents far away can act out on video.