A moose in striped pajamas is one way to end the day. A little pig going through the familiar business of washing up and choosing pajamas is another. Sandra Boynton has room for both, which is why we'd start a bedtime-book search with the kind of evening you want to share, and perhaps how much reading energy you have left.
Some nights there might be room for all the animal voices. Some nights your ordinary voice and a few pages together will be plenty.
Pajama Time! has a little dance in it
Pajama Time! turns getting dressed for bed into something rhythmic and a bit ridiculous, with an elephant in a footed one-piece and animals putting on their jammies. If you enjoy a lively read-aloud, there's a lot to work with here. You can also read it quietly. The book doesn't need you to put on a show.
Our copy is the 24-page English oversized lap board-book edition. That larger page is a real part of the choice: lovely to spread across an adult's lap, a little more book to fit into a bag. If you're comparing copies with the same title, our guide to physical book formats explains the differences.
A familiar routine, with a few animal interruptions
The Going to Bed Book follows a whole group through washing, brushing teeth and saying good night. We like that it's an ensemble: you can follow the evening along or spend a moment looking at what one particular animal is doing.
Night-Night, Little Pookie brings the same end-of-day feeling down to one small character, with pajamas, washing up and a little hide-and-seek still to get through. If Pookie already has a place on the shelf, that familiar face might be the reason to choose this one.
Or let the story wander somewhere else
There's a duck on a head in Silly Lullaby. That tells you a fair amount about its approach to bedtime. It's a good possibility if you'd rather finish with a funny, slightly unexpected image than another account of the bathroom routine.
Woodland Dance! goes out into a moonlit gathering of animals, with a musical trio playing as everyone dances. The woodland setting gives it a different feeling from the pajama books. For another quieter theme, our guide to affectionate books looks at stories about being loved and being someone's friend.
A book for the other end of the day
If you're giving two books, we'd consider making the second one a change of scene. Hey! Wake Up! is the good-morning counterpart, full of animal energy. Blue Hat, Green Hat takes getting dressed in a funny direction, with colors, clothes and a turkey who hasn't quite got the idea.
You can find those different moods together in our Sandra Boynton collection. One evening story and one daytime book can make a considered little gift without turning it into a whole library.
And if you're reading with a baby, our simple shared-reading and baby-play ideas offer a few ways to spend time with a page. Get comfortable with a book you want to read, and leave room to linger wherever something catches your attention—perhaps the same animal you stopped to look at yesterday.
Leave a comment