Bedtime Books

Good night moon, No Matter What, Guess how much I love you those are a couple of favorites my kids ask for over and over.

There are so many good books I read with my kids that I don't know where to start. I will say that my sons favorite is "Afraid of the Dark", but don't let the title dicourage you it actually helps explain things. My oldest daughter's favorite is "Goodnight Sweet Butterfly" and my favorite is "Love You Forever". We have at least 100 books because I like to read new things to them and we read several books a night. Have fun reading!

My son is going to be 2 in March and there are a couple of great bed time books that we read at night. he goes back and forth between which one of the following are his favorites.

Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
Oakeys Goodnight Kiss by Jillian Harker

These are great books for bed time and very enjoyable for mother and son.

There is goodnight moon, goodnight everyone goodnight. I have triplets that will be four in May and they love these books cause I let them fill in the words with me so it makes them feel like they are reading also. Like it will say Harry put the donkey under the pillow I point to the little boy and they say Harry and I say put and I point to the donkey and they say donkey and I point to the pillow and they say under the pillow and on and on but they love it believe it or not I bought it at a garage sale and goodnight moon is a very popular book you can get it at the library. A.

My son's favorite is Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. We read it EVERY night!! It's an easy read, not too busy and he love the machines!!!

D.

Hi M.,

There are so many wonderful books out there! "Goodnight Moon" is one of my favorites. Another is "Guess How Much I Love You." "The Velveteen Rabbit" is long enough that I read it to my daughter over two or three nights. My all-time favorite though is "The Giving Tree." It has a wonderful message. Scholastic publishes tons of great books for that age... all are educational, some are interactive, and others are very soothing (good for bedtime). If you like the rhyming of Dr. Seuss, you may also try some of Shel Silverstein's poetry books like "A Light in the Attic" or "Where the Sidewalk Ends." My husband and I go to the half-priced book store and frequently find terrific books for reasonable prices.

We read my 3-year old daughter a bedtime story every night and it is a great way to end her day and bond with her in a special way. Also, she has come to recognize her bedtime story as the time to wind-down so we get very little argument when it's time to go to bed. As an added bonus, she is really interested in books and anxious to learn how to read!

I hope this helps.
J.

I have a little boy who just turned 3 and he loves the Little Critter books. You may also want to check out the Scholastic Book Club. They have a lot of different clubs to fit ages and prefrences. We do the Disney books. Whick actually are a little long for him right now, but they have a smaller Disney club. And we also do the Nick Jr. book whick Hunter loves. It is a lot of his favorite shows like Blues Clues and Dora. I hope this helps. We sure love our reading time too. His bookshelf is absolutely full!

A good book for bedtime is Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Not long so I'm sure it won't be the only book you'll want to read.

One of our favorite is "I love you as much" I don't know who wrote it but it's a really beautiful book. "Guess how much I love you" is a good one too. Good night moon is always a good choice for bed time.
Good luck trying!

Some of the books we read at bedtime are Harold and the Purple Crayon and Little Bear. They are kind of slow paced and always end soft. By the time we are done, I am ready for bed too!

There are so many books to chose from. What is your son into? If he likes trains, as most boys do, try "It's funny where Ben's train takes him" by Robert Burleigh. The story is about a boy whose train takes through the country and city finally ending at bedtime station. I absolutely love this book. Also "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo" by Kevin Lewis, picture's by Daniel Kirk. Daniel Kirk is also an author.

I would also check with your local children's librarian.

Hi M.,
We read a lot in our house too. My mom saved all of my Golden Books from when I was a kid and we read those too. I can't think of any series of books but Eric Carle is a great author and has some cool books with great pictures. I also like to get the books from Kohl's (the clothing store) they have a book and stuffed animal for 5$ and there are usually 4 books that they sell at the same time that all relate to each other..but you can forego the stuffed animal and just buy to book for 2.50. Also, you might google, the big backyard. It is a magazine series for little kids. My kiddos love it. THey are about animals. There is usually a fiction and a non fiction story in each one plus other little activities. My 2 1/2 year old like them b/c he is really into animals. HOpe that helps.

A good one my son loves is "I Love You, Stinky Face" it's about a little boy who is getting ready for bed and he asks his mom "but what if I was a slimy swamp creature" and other things like that and the mom has great responses as to what she would do for him and how she would love him. It's about a 5 minute read and you can try and skip a few pages if you're trying to shorten it.

Here are a few of our favorites:
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, by
Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
Sleepy Me, Marnie McGee
--all of these are very simple buy with fun pictures

Hi M.,

The only and I mean only author you need to know is Sandra
Boynton! She is so funny, I fall on the floor laughing. The going to bed book is so cute! She also right now has books @ Kolhs(for Kolhs for kids, charity) that have a cd in them for $5!! and the cd's are a riot. I am trying to get all of her books for my little tot! The belly button book is so cute.
My personal Penquin, has a song that you can download on-line and it's great, my son and I sit @ my laptop and laugh and listen to the song!

Good luck
M.

I love ERic Carle books. Very colorful and so much fun. Also, you could do Shel Silverstein. They are poetry but fun kids stories, one book is "A light in the attic" and another is "Where the Side walk Ends"

I love reading Max Lucado's books to my children ( and they love them, too).

He's a christian author, the themes of his books usually being that his characters try and try to "fit in" when in fact, we are special because we were made the way we are, and we're not meant to "fit in", but to stand out.

Some of his titles are;
(My favorite) You are Special, Because You are Mine, Best of All, Because I Love you, If only I Had a Green Nose, A hat for Ivan .

I know there are more, but these are the ones I have, and I love every one of them. I think the message for children is one they all need these days- My kids especially love them on days where they think one of thier siblings has gotten more attention than them, or they think Mommy and Daddy love someone else more than them.

"Love you forever" is probally my all time favorite, my son used to hear it so much that when he went through the i don't want to go to sleep phase he would yell at me when I read it. we all like the "where the sidewalk ends" and "a light in the attic" and "if you give a mouse a cookie" I too liked more soothing stories for night and left eh funny active stories for reading during the day but remember nomatter what you are reading you are teaching your kids a wonderful thing, I have a step daughter who is 5 and only a few months younger than my son and she will always ask for a story but no one reads to her unless she is here and no one read to her when she was little and while she is way ahead of my son in school, she can add and subtract and knows all her letters and letter sounds and so on while my son struggles, he can read, he can't tell you a p is a p but he can sound out eh word and read it to you and he loves to readwe read a book every day after school and one at night, and he is reading chapter books to me now, at age 5, and I think it is nothing more than the fact that I love to read and by reading to him from day one i passed that love onto him, so even if it's the newspaper or a cereal box keep it up, your child is luckey to have that time with you and is learnign to love the one thing that will help them succeed in evertyhing they do.

There are two different awards that are given for children's literature, one is for illustrations and the other is for the book itself. The one for illustrations I think is called the "Caldecott Award" and the other one is meant for chapter books. I always keep an eye out for these award labels on the front cover of the book, it usually indicates something that's really engaging. When this time comes for me, I plan on going to the library weekly and loading up with books to read to my son...this way you can only buy the ones that they truly love and you always have something new and interesting. I think it's great that you spend that much time reading to your son...you have no idea how beneficial it is to his development. He will have a larger vocabulary, attention span, and many more benefits because of the time your spending with him -- kudos!

Hi M.!

Llama Llama Red Pajama is an excellent bedtime book, as is Goodnight Moon. My son dosen't sit still for a lot of books, but he is enthralled by those two. Hope this helps!

S.

all kinds of books are good for them there is no bad book for kid age. disney has good book but can be long. berenstien bears there is so many out ther go to a used book store go to kid section you will find many books to read. any type of reading is good for a kid they learn alot.

D.