Mom Hacks – Great Kids’ Books for Bedtime Stories

We’re big readers at my house. I love to read, and my kids loved being read to as babies and toddlers. Once they learned how to read themselves, we encouraged their bedtime stories to continue, by offering an extra half-hour before “lights out” – if they were reading.

Here are a few of our favorite books to be read aloud or enjoyed alone, and a few that have been recommended to me. If you’ve got a fave that isn’t on this list but feel it should be, leave me a comment!

• Time for Bed by Mem Fox, Jane Dyer
• Sometimes I Like to Curl Up in a Ball by Vicki Churchill, Charles Fuge
• On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman
• If Animals Kissed Good Night by Ann Whitford Paul, David Walker
• They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel
• A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers, Sam Winston
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• The ‘Scaredy Squirrel’ series books by Melanie Watt
• The ‘Pigeon’ series books by Mo Willems
• All the singalong board books by Raffi
• The whole Dr. Seuss board book collection
• Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty, David Roberts
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
• The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Zog by Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
• All of Robert Munsch’s books
• Midnight Farm by Carly Simon, David Delamare
• Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis, Laura Cornell
• If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen
• Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
• I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt, Cyd Moore
• All of Sandra Boynton’s board books
• Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae, Guy Parker-Rees
• The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland
• The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen, Dan Hanna
• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
• No Mirrors in My Nana’s House by Ysaye M. Barnwell, Synthia Saint James
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd
• Veggies with Wedgies by Todd H. Doodler
• Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill
• The Jolly Postman Or Other Peoples Letters by Allan Ahlberg
• The Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Book) by Jon Stone, Michael Smollin
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
• The Best Pet of All by David Larochelle
• Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating by Alice W. Flaherty

Happy reading!

Natalie Rea

Mom to two amazing daughters - a feisty teen in middle school, and an ambitious young adult in university. Originally from Montréal's West Island, I now explore the beautiful trails of Hamilton, Ontario. Proud Canadian, vegetarian, dog-adopter, & bleeding-heart liberal. I smile a lot because I have Resting Bitch Face.