Bedtime Stories

• Reading together is fun!
• A story at bedtime relaxes your child
• Reading and telling stories will help develop your child's imagination
• Your child will look forward to bedtime
• Reading at bedtime will set your child on the path to becoming a lifelong reader
• A bedtime reading routine is an opportunity for quiet time with your child

• Set a routine to establish familiarity.
• A bedtime story should help your child sleep, so keep this in mind when choosing a book to read or a story to tell.
• Falling asleep before the end of a story is frustrating. Plan to finish the story (or chapter) before your child is too tired to participate.
• If you are reading a longer book, try to stop at the end of a chapter or section break within a chapter.
• Keep the bedtime reading ritual to around twenty minutes, give or take.
• Children love to revisit favorite books. Indulge them--reading at bedtime is about relaxation. Eventually your child will ask for a new story.

A-Hunting We Will Go! (Morrow, 1998)
Written and illus. by Steven Kellogg. ISBN 0-688-14944-8

Close Your Eyes (Frances Foster, 2001)
Written by Kate Banks. Illus. by Georg Hallensleben. ISBN 0-374-31382-2

Cowboy Dreams (HarperCollins, 1999)
Written by Kathi Appelt. Illus. by Barry Root. ISBN 0-06-027763-7

Creepy Things Are Scaring Me (HarperCollins, 2003)
Written by Jerome Pumphrey. Illus. by Rosanne Litzinger. ISBN 0-06-028962-7

Dream Weaver (Harcourt, 1998)
Written by Jonathan London. Illus. by Rocco Baviera. ISBN 0-15-200944-2

Everything to Spend the Night From A to Z (DK Ink, 1999)
Written by Ann Whitford Paul. Illus. by Maggie Smith. ISBN 0-789-42511-4

Goodnight Moon (HarperCollins,1947, 1997)
Written by Margaret Wise Brown. Illus. by Clement Hurd. ISBN 0-06-020705-1

Guess How Much I Love You (Candlewick Press, 1994)
Written Sam by McBratney. Illus. by Anita Jeram. ISBN 1-564-02473-3

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? (Scholastic, 2000)
Written by Jane Yolen. Illus. by Mark Teague. ISBN 0-590-31681-8

Kiss Good Night (Candlewick, 2001)
Written by Amy Hest. Illus. by Anita Jeram. ISBN 0-7636-0780-0

I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go to Bed (Candlewick, 2001)
Written and illus. by Lauren Child. ISBN 0-7636-1570-6

In the Night Kitchen (HarperCollins, 1970)
Written and illus. by Maurice Sendak. ISBN 0-06-026668-6

Midnight Farm (Simon & Schuster, 1997)
Written by Carly Simon. Illus. by David Delamare. ISBN 0-689-81237-X

The Mouse That Snored (Walter Lorraine, 2000)
Written by Bernard Waber. ISBN 0-395-97518-2

My Own Big Bed (Greenwillow, 1998)
Written by Anna Grossnickle Hines. Illus. by Mary Watson. ISBN 0-688-15599-5

Sleep Book (Random, 1962)
Written and illus. by Dr. Seuss. ISBN 0-394-80091-5

Sleepy Book (HarperCollins, 2001)
Written by Charlotte Zolotow. Illus. by Stefano Vitale. ISBN 0-06-027873-0

Sleepy Me (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
Written by Marni McGee. Illus. by Sam Williams. ISBN 0-689-82378-9

The Storytelling Princess (Putnam, 2001)
Written by Rafe Martin. Illus. by Kimberly Bulcken Root. ISBN 0-399-22924-8

Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep (Harcourt, 1998)
Written by Joyce Dunbar. Illus. by Debi Gliori. ISBN 0-15-201795-X

Time for Bed (Harcourt, 1997)
Written by Mem Fox. Illus. by Jane Dyer. ISBN 0-152-01066-1

What! Cried Granny: An Almost Bedtime Story (Dial, 1999)
Written by Kate Lum. Illus. by Adrian Johnson. ISBN 0-8037-2382-2

When I'm Sleepy (Dutton, 1996)
Written by Jane R. Howard. Illus. by Lynne Cherry. ISBN 0-525-45561-2

Where the Wild Things Are (HarperCollins, 1963)
Written and illus. by Maurice Sendak. ISBN 0-06-025492-0

The Whole Night Through: A Lullaby (HarperCollins, 2001)
Written and illus. by David Frampton. ISBN 0-06-28825-6