Top Picture Book Read-Alouds for Bedtime

Reading together with my little boys is something that  I try to make happen each day in our house, if not at some point during the day, for sure at bedtime. Snuggling up with my pajama-clad munchkins and enjoying a few stories before bed is one of my favourite parts of the day. I love to read stories at bedtime that set the mood for sleep, books that are about the routines of going to sleep, ones that have a gentle, soothing rhythm and rhyme, or books that speak about a parent’s love for their children and remind me and my own little ones how loved they are. I want them to go to bed feeling safe, snug, and secure in their parent’s love for them and books can help set that tone. They are also a good reminder to me as a mama to enjoy these precious moments while they’re little and to linger a little longer at bedtime to talk and snuggle and not rush it so I can get to other things. These are some of my favourites:

1. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

This book is a classic for a reason. It’s simple and enjoyable to read and the process of saying goodnight to all the objects in their world is comforting for little ones. My boys also enjoy spotting the mouse in each bedroom scene.

2. The Sleepy Little Alphabet: A Bedtime Story from Alphabet Town by Judy Sierra

This is a fun bedtime book that also helps teach the alphabet with great rhythm and rhyme. I especially love the illustrations in this book with each letter becoming a character and reinforcing letter recognition and there are so many clever details on each page that you seem to find something new each time you read it.

3. Time for Bed by Mem Fox

This one is a lovely gentle story of familiar animal parents saying goodnight to their little ones.

4. Tuck Me In! by Dean Hacohen and Sherry Scharschmidt

This is a fun book for kids to get involved with tucking various animals into bed; when you flip the pages they become a blanket for the animals.

5. Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

For all those little ones that call out for their parents to come back for just one more kiss, another tuck-in, a sip of water, a visit to potty, or another stuffed animal, they’ll be comforted along with Llama Llama that mommy and daddy are always nearby.

6. Waddle, Waddle, Quack, Quack, Quack by Barbara Anne Skalak

Although not specifically a bedtime book, I love reading this book at bedtime. It has wonderful rhyming verses, and after a little duckling gets separated from his mama and siblings the book ends with them all safely cozying up for bed in their nest.

7. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

Another lovely story in which Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare express how much they love each other.

-Debby