Looking for Bedtime Book Suggestions.....

Hi J.,
All of these books have a going to bed theme.
Here's a list of the all-time favorites at my house:
Good Night Moon
Good Night Gorilla
Time for Bed
Fish Kisses
The Going to Bed Book
Time for Bed
So Many Bunnies
Five Little Monkies Jumping on the Bed

Sweet dreams,
K. G.

All the titles mentioned are fabulous! My advice is to stick with the board books for awhile. You can find them at stores like Marshalls cheaper than the big bookstores. Also try independent bookstores, they make good recommendations, and have good prices on their "remains" shelf/table. And remember, its ok if he/she wants to hear the same story over and over and over....good readers reread!

Both of my sons love Time for Bed by Mem Fox. It's about animal babies being put to sleep. Not only does it flow (she spent a great deal of time focusing on onsets and rhymes), it teaches the names of baby animals. It's beautifully written and illustrated.

Enjoy!

Hi J.:
My 3 YO loves all of the Dinosaur series..."How Do Dinosaurs say Goodnight?", "how do dinosaurs eat their food, get well soon, etc. by Jane Yolen...which we have been reading for a couple of years now. Goodnight Moon is also great...Reading a story before bed is such a wonderful bonding experience..good for you..it only gets better.

Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, What makes a Rainbow, if you give a mouse a cookie, The Going to Bed Book, Moo Baa La La La, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, & The carrot Seed were all our favorites. They are all classics & come in board book versions. Hope you enjoy them!

"Good Night Moon" We have the paperback and the board book. We've been reading it to our son for two years. We loves it! Also "Brown Bear Brown Bear" is a good one for naps. I got the CD (singing) and we read that one too.

anything by eric carle, leo lionni has lots of great ones too, though some are older. ed emberly has fun books, great for little ones. the roger priddy books are great, colorful, great for learning words. todd parr books are awesome too, especially for the younger kids, very big bright colorful fun and sweet, good messages too. chris van allsburg books are mostly for older kids, but good to get your hands on if you see them on sale, the illustrations are beautiful, and they are keepers. knuffle bunny is awesome, one of our favorites, short but so funny. another favorite is i love you stinky face, that was the one that made my son start calling me mama (sniffle...:)) . of course, guess how much i love you was all my kids' 1st book, along with goodnight moon. corduroy. velveteen rabbit, if you can get through it without crying, i still cant...i could go on and on...

I love Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, and I Love you As Much.

Hope that helps!

M.

Hi J.,
I have a 14 month old and just recently he has really started paying attention to the books I read him at night. Some of the ones we read are:
Good Night Gorilla
Mommy Hugs (There is also a Daddy Hugs)
A, You're Adorable (I love this because I used to sing this to him in the car when he was an infant)
Goo Night Moon (We end with this, kind of like a final good night.)
Since your little one is older, you might be able to read a few books that are a little longer.
I also LOVE the pigeon books by Mo WIllems. They are probably for kids a bit older but the pigeon is so expressive, your baby might think he's funny.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses to your request, but I'll add to them anyway. Here are a few of our favorites: (sorry I don't know all of the authors off hand, and my daughter is napping- which is where the books are!) "Good Night Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown, "I Love You Through and Through", "Snuggle Puppy" by Sandra Boyton (and pretty much anything else by her too), "My Little Miracle", and "My Many Colored Days" by Dr Suess. Happy Reading

Here are some of our favorite bedtime board books:

Time for Bed by Mem Fox

Pajama Time! by Sandra Boynton

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Guess How Much I love You by Sam McBratney

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (have your little one look for the little mouse that moves around throughout the pages in the book)

Other great books that may not be available as board books are:

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Books by Doreen Cronin

Any of the Skippyjon Jones books by Judy Schachner (really funny)

Hope that helps!

C.

Goodnight Moon, Goonight New Jersey ( I think theres a whole bunch of other options like Good Night New York, Good night San Francisco, etc...so you can find where you live, Moon Dance, Bless Me, On The Day You Were Born. My son asks for these - they are his "night night" books. There are SOOOOO many good books out there!

Hi, J.,
I recommend "Going to Sleep on the Farm" (http://www.amazon.com/Going-Sleep-Wendy-Cheyette-Lewison/.... Incredibly sweet, great pictures, and a sleepy rhythm.
-A.

Hi J.,

With my twins I read them "Good Night Moon", "I love you through and through" or "The very hungry caterpillar". They are lovely books & they're easy to read in a sleepy melody which sets them mood for sleepy time.

At my baby shower, my sister added a "book well". It was to be kind of like a wishing well is at a bridal shower. I got a book from each guest, either a favortie book from when they had kids or were kids, and they were all asked to inscribe a little note to the baby in the front cover. It was a fantastic idea and I am so happy she did it. I put some special ones in a basket near the entrance to his room (my son is just about two now) and each night he picks one to read. I rotate them when I see he hasn't picked certain ones for awhile, but there are a few books that have remained since I initiated that ritual at age 4 months. He loves to be the "big boy" and pick out his own book...the hot one right now is from my sister and was a childhood favorite of ours. The name of it is The Fourteen Bears of Summer and Winter. It's a little long, but he pretty much knows the story by heart now and reads along with me. I can't describe how much it means to me to have that alone time with my son. No matter what has happened that day to either of us, that 20 minutes or so is our time to cuddle under his favorite blanket and have a glass of milk and a cookie and read his favorite book. I wish you the same feeling for years to come!

Enjoy your little one!
L.~*

I am listing my daughter's fav books on my blog. Many of them we started reading to her when she was younger than 18 months.
http://mylifewithmoxie.wordpress.com/moxies-reading/

fairy tales with like three bears is good .the cat in the hat another good book. do animal books with the baby and do the noises together thats fun.i do it . you'll both love it H.

where the wild things are, see how much I love you, corduroy, velvetteen rabbit, anything by Dr. Seuss. My daughter loves Cows in the Kitchen.

There are so many good ones. I See, I Hear and I Touch are nice for under 2 year olds.

Hi J.. My daughter loves books and her favorite bed time read is "mommy calls me monkeypants" by JD Lester. It is illustrated by Hiroe Nakata and is simple but lots of fun. Enjoy!

I see that all the great ones have already been listed for you, but I just wanted to add; "Love You Forever" is also great! Enjoy all the beautiful books and the beautiful bonding! Happy reading.....
D. N.

we have a pile of bedtime books by our bed & we read one to my son who is now two and have been since he was born before we take him into his own room for bed. some of them are - good night gorilla, i love you goodnight, cock a doodle doo! barnyard hullabaloo, wake up night, i know a rhino, hush little baby, and the going to bed book. if you give these names to any bookstore they can look the names up on the net & find the author's. good luck :)

Everything by Sandra Boynton. Funny rhymes, great pictures, simple, interesting topics.

My son will be four months this week and he loves Good Night Moon. We have a ton of books since everyone wrote their well wishes in books instead of cards for my baby shower. When he gets older, I plan on letting him pick one book to read, and afterwards we'll read good night moon to keep our bed time ritual going.

Here are a few that my daughter loves: The Going To Bed Book, Sleepy Time Olie, Moo Moo Brown Cow (very good for when your child starts to read bc it has repitition...my daughter is 2 and now reads it to me). I find that the fairy tales are a little too long at this age and my daughter would lose interest after the first few pages so keep it simple and interesting and he/she will love story time. Enjoy!!!

**K.**

All of the Sandra Boynton books are fabulous. Also, the Very Hungry Catepillar is wonderful. Good Night Moon, Where is Baby's Belly Button, Elmo books with sound and so much more. If you go to the library, the librarian will suggest lots of books for you and there are usually guides for reading by age group. Really, anything that you read out loud with lots of colorful pictures will be good. Picture books of basic household items are great, too. Also, be sure to read slowy and point out all of the items on the page. In Good Night Moon, play find the mouse! Enjoy!!

Our favorite is: "How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight?" It is the greatest bedtime book. Its short, sweet, funny and it has cool illustrations. The kids love it, and I love it because its quick and painless. :)

Good night sun, Hello moon is fabulous. A personal favorite is also Guess How Much I Love you.

Hi J.!
I have come to realize that any rhyming stories are quite appealing to children as young as yours, and as old as the seven year old I nanny for. Dr. Seuess is a master at this! Any of his books are wonderful, and tend to keep a child's attention. 10 wriggly wiggly caterpillars is also a great one. Good luck!

My 18 mo. daughter loves books and we read all of the ones people have listed but the 2 she likes best at night are ones I didn't see. They are "Old Turtle" and "Old Turtle and the Broken Truth". They are low key in tone and have beautiful watercolor pictures and really calm her down. The stories are beautiful.

My favorite is Good Night Moon. My Hubbys favorite is Guess How MUch I Love You. They are both wonderful books. And if you read Good Night Moon, make sure to look on each of the colored pages, the mouse is there hiding for your child to find!

good night moon was my son's favorite. he is now 15 and sometimes still quotes a page or two.
LOL
then when he got to the next stage (age 3 or so) it was Is your a Mama a LLama?
Have fun

Well I see a lot of our favorites already listed but I have to add "I Love You Because You're You". I can't remember who the author is but this is one of my daughters (and my) favorites. We read it every night.

My son likes all kinds of books, but I especially love to read "Goodnight Gorilla" to him before bed. It's only got a few words, but it has wonderful pictures! And he really looks closely at them now, which is an exciting first step to literacy!

You can get it in a large board book, which is ideal for your baby too!

Hi J.,

One of our bedtime favorites is "The Going to Bed Book" by Sandra Boynton. The rhyming is great, it's a little silly, it's a board book (great for this age group), and it's not too long! "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" is another bedtime favorite.

Enjoy!

Good Morning Good Night

Hi J.,

A lot of our favorites have already been mentioned, like Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I Love You... Goodnight Gorilla is also very cute.

Our very best favorites (my daughter's really, 17 months) however are two by the same author, Nancy Tafuri. The titles are I Love You, Little One and Goodnight, My Duckling. We can talk about the pictures for hours, and both are warm and soothing. Because there is more text in I Love You, Little One, sometimes I have to skip a line but it's easy to do because of the way it's written. I highly recommend them.

One of my favorites is Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown but it's still too long for my daughter. Simple stories with limited text should keep her attention and eventually she'll be able to "read" them from memory!

Have fun. It's my favorite part of the day!

Here are some books my twins love at bedtime. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratny, Pajama Dance, by Sandra Boyton, Good Night Moon by Maragart Wise Brown, Good Night Beach by Adam Gamble and Cooper Kelly, Bedtime Peekaboo (It's published by Dorling Kindersley), I love you because... I can't find it!!! I don't rememebr the author and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Iza Trapani Hope this helps!!! I.