Monthly Archives: January 2012

Goodnight Tales by Johnny Morris


Bryn has really been enjoying the Goodnight Tales for bedtime, having decided it was time to move on from his longstanding picture book stories of Oliver. He was introduced to these stories when he got the audio book for his birthday. A nostalgic treat for Owen & I as we listened to these in the car marvelling at all the voices. What a great story teller.

We then were lucky enough to get our hands on a copy of the book from Owens childhood, now father & son happily read a few tales in the evening. While I am not sure we can do justice to the voices, I do appreciate how the name and character of the animal can help shape the voice. The stories are gentle with comforting repetition at the start & end alongside a healthy dose of mischief. Bryn seems to have a few firm favourites & delights in meeting the characters again in different stories.

I was thinking a modern day equivalent would be the Percy Parkeeper stories, which Bryn also likes. The slower pace of these stories provide a nice change to roaring dinosaours, zooming rockets & roaring lions

Little one’s bedtime by Suzi Moore & Rosie Reeve

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Bryn has had the same bedtime story – ‘Oliver who would not sleep’ every evening from when he was 10 weeks till a few months go. We wanted Freya to also have her own bedtime story & after a months of searching we were pleased to discover this at the library. It ticked all the boxes, fun, imaginative & a treat to read aloud. I wonder how many years we will be reading this one.

Little one’s bedtime tells the story of a little girl & her teddy making their way to bed. The little girl is such a fabulous character full of mischief, spark & fun constantly looking for adventure being a pirate, knight or even a wizard. It beautifully depicts the girls wondrous imagination with thoughtful illustration tying together both real & imaginative worlds. When reading this with Bryn he enjoyed spotting the clues as to what the little girl will do next. Its full of energy which gently dissipates as she’s finally ready for sleep & kissed goodnight by the paitent comforting persistent voice putting her to bed.
While potentially providing plenty of inspiration on ways of stalling going to bed it’s too good a story not be indulged in.

I was also fortunate enough to win a copy of this book after entering a competition over at Library Mice – a fantastic blog full of great book reviews.