Bedtime can be really baffling for parents, especially ones with toddlers. Handling the child’s need for companionship, protection and on the other hand, sleep often turns out to be quite a complex exercise for many. A lot of parent surveys quote, “Getting the child to bed on time every night is like a recurring nightmare for them.” As a resolve to this, parents follow a variety of bedtime rituals all over the world. Amongst all other bedtime routines and rituals, there’s a common prevalence of bedtime stories across the world. This commonality is proof enough to say that story books can be a parent’s best friend when it comes to making a child go to sleep.
Nowadays as the number of bedtime readers is increasing, so is the number of books that are available both online and offline. However, choosing the best ones according to your child’s age and liking is utterly important. Though most of these short storybooks are designed in a way that they calm the child mentally before a nap, there are some which deserve a special mention. Here’s our list of 10 best children’s story books for helping ease children to sleep at night. Also, read Top Tips to Disciplining a Toddler.
Best Children’s Books To Help Them Have Sweet Dream
1. 365 Bedtime Stories Book:
365 Bedtime Stories published by Om Books is a collection of short stories for toddlers, one story for each day of the year. Preschoolers like to explore new stories of fairy-tales and also a new story every time. No repetition for the little ones as they are smart enough to catch a repetitive story.
Quick Tip For Parents: The book comes with great packaging and prompt delivery. It is a good hardboard book with great paper quality. This book covers a variety of genres such as bedtime stories, fairy tales, moral stories, and many more. The book uses simple English so that kids can pick up new words easily. It is full of beautiful illustrations which make it one of the best books for kids. 365 Bedtime Stories will definitely help you in increasing the vocabulary and creative thinking of your little one.
This is a great illustrative book written by Eric Carle for toddlers as well as preschoolers. The book is basically the story of a caterpillar who turns into a butterfly. The language of the book is very simple. It is a must-have book in every child’s collection.
Quick Tip For Parents: This book is designed in such a manner that the children are encouraged to read the book themselves. The story helps the children to learn the name of fruits, numbers, days of the week, the difference between day and night, and much more. Pages are tough and the print is very colorful which is truly an attention grabber for children.
3. Goodnight Moon:
This is a gentle bedtime story by Margaret Wise Brown, which has lulled generations of children to sleep. The book has used rhythmic, gently lulling words which have been combined with warm and equally lulling pictures. This storybook is an ideal classic bedtime book.
4. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom:
This is a playful and simple bedtime story written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. It revolves around the letters. It features the letters of the alphabet as characters where all the letters are meeting up on top of the coconut tree!
Quick Tip For Parents: The story is very captivating, easy to read and understand. The bright-colored illustrations and playful rhythm are absolutely ideal for toddlers. This book will surely help to introduce and teach the alphabet to kids in a fun way.
This storybook is written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. The illustrations and pictures are detailed and captivating. The story is about a little boy named Max. After acting very unruly, his mother calls him a wild thing and sends him to bed without supper. He goes to his room and has a crazy dream where he goes to an island full of monsters called wild things. He takes over as their king and has quite an adventure. In the end, he decides he wants to go back to his mother and does so. He wakes up in his room to find his supper waiting for him after all.
Quick Tip For Parents: This is a story with several important lessons to be learned. It helps children to understand that some behaviors are only appropriate in certain places at certain times. They shouldn’t just act wild anywhere and anytime. It also has an important lesson about love and respect; specifically towards parents. This story provides a good way to see these lessons in a fun and palatable way for even younger children.
6. Guess How Much I Love You:
This heart-warming storybook is about Little and Big Nutbrown Hare having a detailed conversation about how much they love each other. The cutest story features the father and son bonding and playing together on the way to put Little Nutbrown Hare down for the night. At the end of the story, Little Nutbrown Hare is fast asleep as hopefully, your little one too will sleep in deep slumber!
Quick Tip For Parents: The illustrations get darker as Little Nutbrown Hare is preparing for his bedtime. This storybook sets a sleepy tone for your child and encourages them to go to sleep right along with Little Nutbrown Hare.
7. The Napping House:
This story is all about nap time. It starts with a soft and cozy bed and a snoring granny! As granny takes her nap, a baby joins her, and then their pets join them, and so on. The bunch of nappers keeps on growing until eventually it is disturbed. Everyone wakes up full of energy and ready to run outside to play!
Quick Tip For Parents: This is an amazing bedtime story with great humor. It is a repetitive story with simple language that helps even younger kids to relax and focus. The illustrations are very well-done in a way that is highly humorous for children and adults alike! Your child will love to look at the different pictures and point out each animal or person as the napping stack gets bigger and bigger!
8. How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight:
This storybook is about dinosaurs, who are going to bed and how they act when doing so. There are 10 different kinds of dinosaurs presented throughout the story and each one is being put to bed by its parents. Different dinosaur species are presented in this book for educational purposes.
Quick Tip For Parents: This storybook encourages easier bedtime. Throughout the book, your child will see plenty of examples of what would be bad bedtime behavior and what is good bedtime behavior. The story tries to convey that the dinosaurs do not stomp, jump, shout, roar and pout when it is time to go to bed. They give hugs and kisses and lay down as they should.
9. I Prayed For You:
This storybook is written by Jean Fischer. It is about a mama bear telling her baby bear just how much she loves the baby. Mama bear discusses how prayer is powerful and important and how she will always pray for her baby. It is a metaphor for devotional parents to share with their children about how they always pray for them. It is a very calming story with a soft rhythm and amazing illustrations to help lull your child to sleep.
Quick Tip For Parents: This faith-based bedtime story is the perfect way for spiritual parents to share a prayer with their children. It helps explain the love involved with a prayer to little ones. It includes bright and interesting illustrations.
10. Good Night, Gorilla:
This storybook is about a zookeeper locking up for the night. As he goes to say good night to each animal, a small gorilla follows him who releases each animal from their cages. Little does the zookeeper know that all of the animals followed him home and cuddled up in his bedroom for the night! It is full of fun and humor perfect for young kids!
Quick Tip For Parents: This storybook is ideal for children up to 3 years. The repetition of the words “Good Night” not only helps your little one to get the idea of bedtime in their head but also helps them to relax and drift off into dreamland.
Final Thoughts:
Reading is amazing for a child’s development in various areas, so bedtime stories have always been a great go-to when starting a bedtime routine. We hope you found some great bedtime stories and tips in our guide and recommendations!