My kids are grown up now but I used to read to them every night before they went to bed. These are the books we all enjoyed the most from those times and I hope you will enjoy reading one or more of them to your children.
1
This was my favourite book when I was a child so I was nervous about reading it to my kids but they loved it, and was scared by it, as much as I was at their age. In 18th century Germany, a young beggar boy is taken on as an apprentice at a corn mill but he soon finds that the miller is a teacher of the black arts and that he'll be required to grind more than just corn. A dark, disturbing but hugely entertaining novel that may well scare the bejesus out of you.
2
If your kids are still at that picture book age then Satoshi Kitamura is an author and illustrator to add to your collection. Goldfish Hide and Seek is a delightfully bonkers tale, about two goldfish playing hide and seek, with bonkers illustrations to match.
3
Cat is a professional storyteller, following in the great tradition of oral poets and tellers of tales through history, and that really shows when reading this book aloud - it just flows and is a pleasure to narrate. It tells the story of a wooden boy who is adopted by an elderly couple and the adventures he has when he ventures out into the world. Magical, and I think it is a real unsung classic.
4
My selections so far have been quite quirky or alternative but this is a far more straightforward and traditional picture book which Ethan and Martha loved having read to them. Claude really wants a hug but everyone in the house is too busy to give him one. He is sad, the poor blighter, but it turns out [SPOILER ALERT] that they are busy organising a surprise party for him, so we get a happy ending. A really joyous story with bright and colourful illustrations.
5
I think we got three or four volumes into this unashamedly old-fashioned series before the kids were too old for bedtime stories (I know, I know, you are NEVER too old!) and I remember them fondly. The adventures of two mice, a married couple, hiding in a house of humans and occasionally meddling in their lives. It could have been written fifty years ago, and that is part of its charm.
1
This was my favourite book when I was a child so I was nervous about reading it to my kids but they loved it, and was scared by it, as much as I was at their age. In 18th century Germany, a young beggar boy is taken on as an apprentice at a corn mill but he soon finds that the miller is a teacher of the black arts and that he'll be required to grind more than just corn. A dark, disturbing but hugely entertaining novel that may well scare the bejesus out of you.
2
If your kids are still at that picture book age then Satoshi Kitamura is an author and illustrator to add to your collection. Goldfish Hide and Seek is a delightfully bonkers tale, about two goldfish playing hide and seek, with bonkers illustrations to match.
3
Cat is a professional storyteller, following in the great tradition of oral poets and tellers of tales through history, and that really shows when reading this book aloud - it just flows and is a pleasure to narrate. It tells the story of a wooden boy who is adopted by an elderly couple and the adventures he has when he ventures out into the world. Magical, and I think it is a real unsung classic.
4
My selections so far have been quite quirky or alternative but this is a far more straightforward and traditional picture book which Ethan and Martha loved having read to them. Claude really wants a hug but everyone in the house is too busy to give him one. He is sad, the poor blighter, but it turns out [SPOILER ALERT] that they are busy organising a surprise party for him, so we get a happy ending. A really joyous story with bright and colourful illustrations.
5
I think we got three or four volumes into this unashamedly old-fashioned series before the kids were too old for bedtime stories (I know, I know, you are NEVER too old!) and I remember them fondly. The adventures of two mice, a married couple, hiding in a house of humans and occasionally meddling in their lives. It could have been written fifty years ago, and that is part of its charm.
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