Marytale
What Am I Riddles for Kids with Answers
30 riddles
The «what am I» riddle is the one shape a child can copy straight away, and that makes it the most useful kind on the site. The object talks about itself, gives three clues, and asks. Nothing else is needed.
Many of these 30 are classics, retold for children, and the rest are ours. Once a seven-year-old has heard five of them they can make one, which is why this collection is really a set of instructions disguised as a game.
I am tall when I am young and short when I am old. What am I?
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A candle
I have a head and a tail but no body at all. What am I?
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A coin
I go through towns and over hills and I never move. What am I?
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A road
I run but never walk, I have a mouth but never talk. What am I?
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A river
I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?
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A map
I am always in front of you and you can never see me. What am I?
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The future
The more of me there is, the less you see. What am I?
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Darkness
I am light as a feather, and the strongest person cannot hold me for five minutes. What am I?
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Your breath
I belong to you, but other people use me far more than you do. What am I?
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Your name
I am taken from a mine and shut in a wooden case, and almost everybody uses me. What am I?
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Pencil lead
I have branches but no leaves, no trunk and no fruit. What am I?
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A bank
I have a spine but no bones. What am I?
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A book
I have rings but no fingers. What am I?
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A tree trunk
I have keys but no locks, and space but no room. What am I?
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A keyboard
I am always hungry, I grow when I eat wood, and one bucket of water puts me out. What am I?
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Fire
I can be cracked, made, told and played. What am I?
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A joke
I make toys move and flashlights shine, and when I run down, everything stops. What am I?
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A battery
I am black and white and read all over. What am I?
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A newspaper
I have a ring but no finger, and people talk into me. What am I?
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A telephone
I go up and down the stairs without moving at all. What am I?
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The carpet
I am in socks and scarves and mittens, and rolled in a ball I'm a toy for kittens. What am I?
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Wool
I have four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening. What am I?
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A person: crawling, walking, then with a stick
I am made of water but if you put me in water I disappear. What am I?
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Ice
I have holes all over and I still hold your dinner. What am I?
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A colander
I can fly without wings and cry without eyes. What am I?
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A cloud
I am tall, I am thin, and the more I work the shorter I get. What am I?
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A pencil
I have a lid and a handle, I sit on the stove and I get very cross. What am I?
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A kettle
You see me once in June, twice in November, and not at all in May. What am I?
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The letter E
I copy everything you do and I live in the bathroom. What am I?
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A mirror
I am the only place where yesterday comes after today. What am I?
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A dictionary
How to ask them
This is the collection to hand over. After a few of these, ask your child to pick any object in the room and describe it as if it were talking — «I am cold, I am full of food, and I hum at night» — and then guess. Their first riddle will almost certainly begin with the most identifying clue, so you will get it instantly; that is the moment to point out the rule that makes riddles work, which is that the clues go from vague to obvious rather than the other way around. Rearranging their own three lines in the right order teaches more than solving twenty of ours. Keep a few going for the car, and let the rule be that a riddle you cannot solve after three guesses gets one extra clue and no more.
After the riddles, a story: illustrated bedtime stories on Marytale
Jokes
Many of these 30 riddles are traditional — the riddle of the Sphinx is older than any book — and Marytale chose them and reworded them for children aged 6 to 10; the rest are our own. Chosen and written by Marytale.