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The Story of Tam and Cam – Storytelling Podcast
September 11, 2025
By: Kathleen
The Story of Tam and Cam
The Story of Tam and Cam
E 323
September 11
Do you know the story of Cinderella? Could you tell someone what it’s about? Hello
everyone, I’m Kathleen Pelly. Welcome to Journey with Story. I’m sure that almost
all of you are very familiar with the story of Cinderella, where a poor young girl
who was treated so badly by her two horrid stepsisters and cruel stepmother, only
to finally find happiness at last when she meets a kind and charming prince. Well,
do you know that there are actually many, many, many different versions of this
story from countries all around the world? Today’s episode is a Cinderella type of
story from Vietnam. As you listen, see if you can spot what is the same as the
Cinderella story you might know, and what’s different. Before we begin, a big shout
out to Cedric, who sent me a most marvelous drawing inspired by one of our
episodes, Bad Sir Brian Botany. You can see Cedric’s drawing if you visit our
website [Link] and click on the blog post for August. Cedric also
sent me a lovely note saying, I love listening to your podcast, it helps me sleep.
Isn’t that wonderful? Thank, Cedric. Now let’s take a journey with the story of Tam
and Calm. Long ago in a small village, there lived a sweet, kind young girl named
Tam. After her mother died, she and her father lived alone together. But one day
Tam’s father married again. His new wife was a widow who also had a young daughter
named Cam. For a few years, the four of them lived together peacefully.
But when her father passed away everything changed for Tam. Tam’s stepmother was
mean and selfish. She doubted on Cam, but ignored and abused poor Tam. All day long
Tam watered the Manioc roots and harvested golden yams, while Cam chased
butterflies and picked wildflowers. Tam worked hard and never complained. Over
time, she grew into a beautiful young woman.
Her stepmother, jealous for her own daughter, wanted to hide Tam’s beauty. She gave
her tattered clothes to wear and sent her to work long hours in the sun so that her
skin would become dry and ruddy, and gave her only leftover scraps and unripe
bananas to eat.
One day the stepmother sent the girls to the river to catch fish. Come home with
your basket full or you will have no supper, she threatened.
The girls went to the river and as usual Tam worked hard while Cam basked in the
sun. Several hours later Tam’s basket was full of fish and Kam’s was empty. Kam was
just as mean-spirited as her mother and she said to Tam, sister your hair is so
dirty you should go wash it before we go home or else mother will be angry. When
Tam went to the water to wash her hair, Can quickly dumped all of Tam’s fish into
her own basket and hurried home. When Tam returned and saw her empty basket, she
wept because she knew she would be punished. Suddenly, a beautiful fairy appeared
before her.
Do not cry, child, but look in your basket. See this little fish? Look after it,
and only good things will come to you.” Tam looked into her basket and saw a little
orange fish. She named him Bong and kept him in a little pond in the yard, secretly
bringing him a few grains of rice each day. For weeks Tam would call out, Bong,
come and eat!
And little Bong would come up and eagerly eat his rice. Tam was happy to have a new
friend. One day, Kam and her mother saw Tam happily feeding Bong. Since they never
wanted to see Tam happy, they hatched a wicked plan. Come on, Mother, help me catch
the fish. I want to eat it, cried Cam.
Yes, my dear, we’ll do it the moment Tam goes to work in the field, replied the
stepmother. As soon as Tam was away, Cam put on Tam’s ragged clothes and rubbed
dirt on her face and called to the fish, Bong, come and eat. When Bong came to the
surface, the stepmother and Cam caught him and cooked him. When Tam came home, she
called out to her friend, Bong, come and eat. But Bong did not come.
Tam looked around and saw fish bones near the pond and sadly realized what had
happened. She carefully buried the bones and said farewell to Bong. A few days
later, Tam found a beautiful pair of red velvet embroidered shoes where Bong’s
bones had been buried. She knew they must have been a gift from Bong and the fairy.
Tam was overjoyed. Never before had she owned anything so beautiful. She carefully
tucked the shoes into her skirt pocket. Whenever she was alone in the field, safe
from the eyes of others, she would put them on and imagine a happier life.
One morning, rain poured from the sky and Tam ran as fast as she could to bring the
cows and the buffalos to the barn. While running she dropped her beautiful shoes
into the muddy pond. She carefully washed them in the river and hung them on the
buffalo’s hordes to dry. Suddenly one shoe was snatched by a raven, who carried it
away and dropped it in front of the king’s palace. Tam was devastated at the loss
of her shoe and took great care to keep her remaining shoe safe. At the palace, the
king stumbled upon Tam’s shoe. He marveled at how delicate and beautiful it was.
Whoever can wear such a shoe must be as lovely and graceful as the shoe itself, and
I must make her my wife, he exclaimed. Thus he sent out a proclamation that the
maiden whose foot fit the shoe would become his queen. Word quickly spread
throughout the kingdom. When Tam heard the news, she thought, this must be my
missing shoe, and begged her stepmother to allow her to try it on.
You ugly thing, you may not even leave this house until you finish sorting these
grains, the cruel stepmother shrieked. She mixed all the grain together in a huge
basket and rushed off with Cam to meet the king’s messenger. As the heartbroken Tam
began to weep, the fairy appeared. Do not worry, dear child, help will come, she
cried. She summoned the ravens who flew to Tam’s side and within minutes had sorted
every single grain.
With cries of deepest gratitude, Tam happily rushed off to try on the shoe. Many
women were pushing and pulling but no one’s foot was tiny enough to fit the shoe.
When Tam’s turn came she squeezed with all of her might but she could not force her
foot into the shoe. At last it was Tam’s turn.
And of course, the shoe fit her perfectly. Then she surprised everyone by pulling
out the other red velvet shoe.
The messenger whisked Tam off to the king and they were married that day. From then
on Tam lived a happy life as a queen, but she never forgot the kind fairy or her
dear friend, Bong.
Well, I wonder if you noticed some similar things in this story to your version of
Cinderella? And I wonder what you noticed that was different from your version of
Cinderella. Remember if you want to send us your drawings just go to
[Link] click on the contact page and download your drawings
there. Cheerio then join us click on the contact page and download your drawings
there. Cheerio then join us next time for Journey with Story.
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Journey with Story is a storytelling podcast for children ages 3 and up, created
and narrated by storyteller, childhood literacy expert, and award – winning
children’s picture book author, Kathleen T. Pelley.
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