This week saw the country mark National Reading Day, which celebrates the importance of reading, particularly for young children, an event which prompted our writers to think of their favourite children’s bedtime books they’ve loved reading to their families.
Getting my fidgety 8-year-old to sit down with a book has always been a challenge. But then I discovered Dog Man by Dav Pilkey, and, suddenly, he couldn’t put a book down, writes Sarah-Louise Elton.
Pilkey, once a young boy who struggled to focus in class, often sent out for being disruptive, turned his creativity into the Dog Man series. His love for comics led to the creation of this comedic quirky hero—a half-dog, half-man who embarks on action-packed adventures.
READ MORE – BLOG: Our Penguins share their favourite tales for World Book Day
The story’s comic style, bright colours, and silly humour grabbed my son’s attention instantly. It’s the perfect fit for a child with endless energy, always on the move and unable to sit still, just like its creator.
The grammar may not be perfect, and punctuation is practically non-existent, but that doesn’t matter to my son. He’s engaged, entertained, and actually reading. The humour and illustrations keep him hooked, and the fast-paced nature of the book matches his energetic personality.
Dog Man has helped my son realise that reading can be fun, and now his bedroom library is growing with a variety of children’s bedtime books. He’s discovered a true passion for getting lost in a story, and books have become something he treasures.
Most importantly, I get to watch him enjoy something I love too, and as a mum, there’s nothing quite like seeing his face light up with excitement and laughter. As he makes his way through the collection, I can see that hunger for the next page, and it fills me with so much pride.
Bedtime has become such a special time, and I’m beyond thrilled to share this little adventure with him.
Call me childish, I freely admit it – but I absolutely love children’s stories and always have done, writes Lucy Stephens.
I may be (allegedly) a grown woman but I’m not ashamed to curl up with a book aimed at under-10s – whether a child is there to listen or not.
Reading stories to my children when they were small was probably the most special part of our day. I’m sure many parents would say the same.
There’s something magical about sharing a story book with a child. I loved it when they pored over the pictures and asked questions that would only occur to a mind free from the clutter of adulthood.
One favourite was the tale of Maisy the mouse who goes to hospital on breaking her leg after jumping on a trampoline. The action begins on said trampoline and my daughter said to me one day, when we were sharing the book for about the 1,000th time:
‘She’s going to jump on her trampoline. Again!’
How silly is Maisy the mouse? She should know what’s going to happen by now, surely?
My nomination for favourite children’s story, though, is ‘The Snail and the Whale’, by the incomparable Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
This duo’s most famous work is The Gruffalo and that’s a terrific read – but this tale of friendship between the ‘snail with the itchy foot’ and the ‘great big grey-blue humpback whale’, and their travels round the world, is just beautiful. For some reason every time I got to the end I felt close to tears. It was certainly a much-requested story at bedtime.
Why is it children’s stories can get to you like this? Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the art form and the way a skilled writer gets to the heart of a story in few words, that gives it such impact. Perhaps stories for the young remind us of our lost innocence. Or maybe I was just a tired-out mum ready for bed herself!
I’m not saying I had kids just so I could do bedtime stories – but it is one of my most favourite parts of parenting, writes Kirsty Green.
Picking my favourite story to read to my kids is a bit like asking me to pick my favourite kids – it depends on the day. I love a rhyming tale, there’s something soothing about it, which is why Julia Donaldson books have always been a firm favourite.
Her love of all things literary comes through in stories such as Tiddler, Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book and Detective Dog Nell which puts those stories in my favourite pile.
But sometimes, when kids have had a tricky day at school, or are struggling with friends, I think the best stories are those which let them know they’re not alone.
I discovered Tom Percival’s Big Bright Feeling books during lockdown, and they’ve helped by kids with emptions from worries, (Ruby’s Worry), to jealousy (Milo’s Monster), anger (Ravi’s Roar) and struggling to make friends (Misha Makes Friends).
But I think my enduring favourite is Perfectly Norman. A story about a boy with wings who tries to hide them under his coat, so he doesn’t stand out. It explores how uncomfortable wearing his coat all the time feels and how liberating it is when he finally sheds it and flies.
One thing I want my kids to be above all else is happy and confident in who they are, celebrating what makes them different and never feeling they need to hide it so Perfectly Norman is my favourite story to tell them.
As an only child, reading was a doorway to a world of adventure and friendship, writes Sarah Newton. And Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, set in an all-girl’s Cornish boarding school, complete with cliff-top outdoor swimming pool, was filled with midnight feasts and feisty pranks.
These days Enid Blyton gets a bad rap, and it is true that some of her characters and themes are of her time, but I’d argue that Malory Towers broke a lot of stereotypes – Darrell Rivers and her schoolfriends were strong, intelligent, curious and resilient.
Years later, I read all these books again with my daughter and reliving my childhood with her was a joy. She giggled at the same cheeky antics, enjoyed the girls’ camaraderie, and felt the same heartache during moments of conflict. It’s been wonderful to see how these timeless stories continue to resonate, even in a world that looks very different from the one I grew up in.
If I am completely honest, The Famous Five were my favourite stories as a child, and I still have all my original copies in the loft. But the sad truth is that these books haven’t stood the test of time.
Characters called Dick, Nobby and Aunt Fanny are hard to read out loud without sniggering (just me?) and the fact that Anne had to stay at home to make the picnic just made me cross. But happily, Malory Towers hasn’t dated in the same way and has managed to bridge generations.
For me, Mallory Towers isn’t just a series of books – it’s been a shared experience with my daughter that has deepened our bond. It reminds me how timeless stories about friendship, courage and growing up never lose their charm. And through my daughter’s eyes, I’ve fallen in love with them all over again.
IT doesn’t have a story, and nor does it have many words, but the bedtime book that has left the biggest impression on our family is You Choose by Pippa Goodhart, writes Simon Burch.
It promises to create a new story with every reading, simply because with every page it asks you to select an item, or a house, or some food, from a double-page spread of illustrated options.
Will you make your home in a castle or a wigwam? Will you choose to eat sausages or a huge blancmange? Who would you choose for family and friends? What type of shoes will you wear?
It doesn’t sound much like a story, and, in truth, it isn’t. It’s just a random set of dilemmas, page after page after page.
But it is certainly an early insight for your children into the age-old truism that the more choice we’re given about something, the harder it is to actually make a decision.
It’s this which can make You Choose really quite stressful. The FOMO of choosing to travel by just one mode of transport, say by roller-skates, and rejecting the prospect of going by a Formula One car or an ocean liner is real.
And you can almost sense the buyer’s regret in your offspring when they hastily choose the wellington boots, and then sit there wondering whether maybe the flip-flops would have been the better option.
So it’s no surprise that reading You Choose can take a loooong time, unless you have a child who is either super-decisive or lacks the imagination to choose anything different other than the same things night in, night out.
And at a time-critical activity such as bedtime reading which, let’s be honest here, is an activity that no parent really wants to dally over when there’s a box-set waiting to be binge-watched downstairs, a book which seems to actually slow down time by generating agonising delays as children struggle to reach their verdict isn’t a promising prospect.
But despite this, it’s fun, because on the up-side, it does generate some intriguing conversations about what it would be like to have to hang out with a Viking.
And it’s good preparation for later life, when you’re making your selection from an extensive takeaway menu and you’re mulling over all of the options before, with a sense of relief, deciding to go with what you had the last time.
