In our household, books are a massive part of our bedtime routine, and have been since Erin was a tiny baby. I grew up reading from a very young age, and have really fond memories of being read to by my older sister, before learning to read on my own and visiting the library with my Mum. My favourites were the Mr Men & Little Miss series, and now I have a daughter of my own, I enjoy re-living the stories with her! 🙂
Most of the books I get for bedtime are based on word of mouth recommendations – or various titles from the same authors once I find a style of writing that Erin enjoys. Books by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler for example are ALWAYS a hit – and I enjoy reading them and their rhyming prose just as much as Erin loves to listen and “read” along. We visit the local libraries and listen out for other mum’s suggestions, but sometimes some inspiration on what to read next would be helpful.
I was therefore chuffed to bits to read out the Bedtime Story Finder in conjunction with Dreams and The Reader – who worked with Michael Rosen, the author of Were Going On A Bear Hunt (another one of Erin’s favourites) to write about the importance of bedtime stories for children. They create The Bedtime Story Finder so that parents would never feel like they had run out of good books to read to their children at bedtime.
Each one of the 150 books in the Bedtime Story Finder is placed into one or more categories, so you can choose depending on what is most important to you. They are also split into age-based suggestions, from books for babies & preschool, primary school (early years), and primary school (upper), as well as books where age doesn’t matter.
After looking at the suggestions for Early Years, I saw some books I was already familiar with, but many that I was not. The covers of the books are shown (although never judge a book…) and you can then click through to learn more about the books including those that have “pictures to delight” or “have a message”. I have a great number of suggestions to explore, and we will be checking them out over the coming weeks! 🙂
You can check out The Bedtime Story Finder and learn more about the initiative here – http://www.dreams.co.uk/sleep-matters-club/bedtime-story-finder/
