Story time is the best time of the day. Whether we're snuggled up on the couch or cozy in our pjs before bed, reading stories with my little ones is one of my favorite things to do. Everyone has a favorite book they remember from their childhood, and every day, parents and kids are discovering new classics of their own. There are many fabulous children's books out there, some of which everyone knows about and others we would have never discovered had my son not simply pulled a random book off a library shelf. I created this blog to share some of these wonderful stories with you. Think of it as a year's worth of the best children's books around, since no day should be without a great story. In the end, I hope we'll all have discovered at least a few new titles that will have made their way onto our list of family favorites. Enjoy!







Friday, January 23, 2015

Day 238: The Going to Bed Book


My daughter and I have been revisiting a lot of our old bedtime favorites these past few weeks, and I have realized that some of these gems have not yet been featured here on the blog. How I managed to overlook these, I don't know, but they certainly deserve a spot on our list of best books!

The Going to Bed Book is one of the first books we ever had in our children's library collection. It was a gift from one of my husband's high school students when we were expecting our son way back in 2007. Sandra Boynton books are well-known classics in the kids' lit world, and rightfully so. Those little board books are fun to read with their lively rhymes, colorful, short (perfect for the attention spans of the littlest readers), sturdy, and, if our copies are to be believed, great for chewing. While my kids have loved many of her books and several have been featured on here already, this is one of our favorites. My kids love seeing the classic Boynton animals get ready for bed, and my four year old daughter has decided that this is the book she likes to read to ME at bedtime.  I love it.

I loved these books when my children were babies, and they did, too. At the time, though, I underestimated these stories, thinking that they would be some of the first books my children would outgrow because were so short and simple. I have been so delighted to find that they continue to be favorites, but wonderful literacy resources, as well! These were some of the first books that my son read aloud on his own (he loved reading to his baby sister), and they are the first books with which my daughter has shown some of those important early literacy skills (such as pointing out words across the page from left to right as she "reads.") If you have fallen in love with these books when your little ones are babies, hang on to them. You just might find that they become your child's favorite bedtime stories to read to you one day.