What are you reading with yr child at bedtime?

[Carrotsoup76]

I'd be interested to hear what you're reading with your children at bedtime.. (with ages!)..

We're reading The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston (with 10 yo) - there's a film being made of this first book in a series of six - we are finding them really charming & magical. Friends visited the house the books are based on- it has awoken again a sense of history and continuity of childhood - and both parents have now read all six books

We are also reading Earthfasts by William Mayne - another historical one where two boys meet up with an eighteenth century drummer boy - which would be a super book for reenactors. Also has elements of supernatural, but is very well crafted and the language is superb, also we like the relationship bantering between 'dad' and his son. Again, there are 2 sequels to this, Candlefasts and Cradlefasts.

We read the Indian in the Cupboard series a while ago, parents were sneaking the book out of the room to read forward a few chapters, son was wondering where his book kept going to!

newbie Carrotsoup :-)

[Thalia the Muse]

Oooh, I just LOVE the Green Knowe books!

We've read most of the Beverly Cleary Ramona and Henry books as bedtime reads, plus Peter Pan and some of the Oz books. Right now we're between bedtime novels -- just various picture books and such. Recently she got really into the Arabian Knights and Greek mythology, but now it's just random stuff from the bookcase.

[Carrotsoup76]

Did you know there was a film being made (a movie) ? Apparently Lucy Boston's daughter in law objected when they were going to depict the grandmother 'embroidering' and insisted that she be quilting :-) I'm really looking forward to it coming out .. it has fired up my son's imagination about historical lines, family traits, the people who might have lived in houses... did you like all the books? :-)

I don't know whether available (and how old your children are) but we really enjoyed the Amabel Williams-Ellis versions of the Arabian Nights, and she inspired me into middle eastern cooking with her suggestions at the back (and delicious illustrations of the tales), of making an arabian nights feast, and dressing up suggestions. The A W-E is fairly old, may be out of print perhaps. Pauline Baynes was the artist - line drawings - v charming

Also on historical theme we have been reading this summer books by Cynthia Harnett (the Woolpack, the Load of Unicorn - sixteenth century and earlier) and Rosemary Sutcliffe (Eagle of the Ninth: romans) - McGraw's The Golden Goblet (Egyptian goldsmiths childhood), and 'Smith' by Leon Garfield (eighteenth cent pick pocket) .. we are rather historical at the moment .. well, we do dress up as well and this feeds into it all and encourages..

[Thalia the Muse]

I mostly remember Children of Green Knowe and A Treasure at Green Knowe -- I don't know if the others are any good. I'm a little scared of the movie, after what they did to The Dark Is Rising and The Water Horse, to be honest. So many kids' movies seem to be dumb and loud and unmagical.

We have the Gustaf Tenggren Arabian Knights, which is gorgeous, but I'll look for the AWE (what great initials!), thanks.

[Aubergine68]

My times for reading to my 3 children are usually earlier in the day, as getting my 2 yr old to bed is a pretty time-consuming project.

DD age 10 reads most children's books to herself now, so for our read-alouds, we do classics that I think she'd enjoy but where the language is too hard for her to plow through on her own. We have read the Alice in Wonderland books, Peter Pan, and Gulliver's Travels. Right now, we are working our way through Little Women together and plan to start Romeo and Juliet after (tha t will take a while, going to do a kids version then the original play).

Have never heard of the Green Knowe books, have to check those out for sure!


My DS age 4 enjoys wordier picture books and poetry for kids, and we haven't moved to the chapter books with him yet as his 2 yr old brother will sit through a picture book, but not a chapter book. Shel Silverstein, Dennis Lee. He loves Dr. Seuss, Robert Munch, Maurice Sendak. Also Magic Schoolbus books. Matthew and the Midnight Turkeys is one of our favorites, and also Sendak's In the Night Kitchen

DD has been reading DSage4 the Captain Underpants series at bedtime, as well as whatever the latest picture books from the library are.

I sometimes play Jim Weiss stories-read-aloud cds for the older ones at bedtime or while I'm cooking and they are playing with lego at the kitchen table.

[Carrotsoup76]

Totally agree with you about nervousness re movie - for one thing it can seriously interfere with your own mental pic of the book, which probalbgy includes a *whole* lot more detail than the movie has time for -

Stones of Green Knowe - I loved this, the idea that the skies were *filled* with birdsong (pre intensive-farming) - wild flowers in hedgerows and a much slower pace of life - community was still to be had around a centre point, in this case, the house..

I had request for The Whales' Song by Dyan Sheldon last night (10 y o going through his 'little boy' book boxes at the moment, antidote to lots of 'older boy school' stuff...?) I'd forgotten what a dreamy book this was. Also The Hidden House by Martin Waddell with the dolls in an abandoned, house hiding behind all the vegetation... and 'Here Comes the Train' by Charlotte Voake, such a fave when he was 2/3 - we used to have to copy the boy in the book and go find a railway bridge and wait for a train to whoosh along! Tonight he thought of playing that book, using his model railway ;-) aaahh!

The Gustaf Tenggren artwork is really lovely! Thanks for flagging it up :-)

[Daffodil]

MY DD is 5 1/2. We just read The Jungle Book, an old favorite of mine from my childhood. (I'd read some of the stories in it to her before, but this was the first time I read the whole book.)

Before that was The Golden Key, by George McDonald, about a boy who finds a golden key at the end of a rainbow, and then sets off with a girl named Tangle on what turns out to be a very long, strange journey to find the lock the key opens. It's an old story, originally published in 1867, but we have a paperback with illustrations by Maurice Sendak.

DP just read her The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes and The Worry Week by Anne Lindbergh (about 3 girls staying alone for a week in a house on an island.) He is relieved to have finally gotten to the end of the Narnia books. DD made him read the whole series to her again after I read them to her, and he found them slightly annoying. I can't say I'm really in love with them, either, but DD is.

[1xmom]

My dd is 8 and we are currently reading the 1st Harry Potter book. I read it when it first came out to see what all of the hoopla was about when people were saying it was satanic or whatever. I personally found it a very good read and I enjoyed it. My dd had never shown interest in reading it (not really big on fantasy and scary stuff) so I was surprised when she brought it home.

[journeymom]

My son is nine years old. Currently we are reading book three of the Percy Jackson series, Titans Curse. It's lots of fun.

Next up is book one of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Amulet of Samarkand. I hope it's good!

[LadyAlathia]

My son's a month old, and we're reading "The Fellowship of the Ring".

Hey, it's not like he's comprehending it, or going to remember, so it might as well be something I like to hear, right? ^_^

When he's a little older, 3 or 4, and ready to start learning how to read, I'm hoping to teach him with The Hobbit, like my daddy taught me. I'm kinda proud of the fact that at 4 years old I could read such words as "Khazad-Dum" and the like. My daddy was awesome.

[Alyantavid]

My son is 6 and totally engrossed in the Mouse and the Motorcycle right now. I'm hoping to go through most of the Beverly Cleary books after this.

[SAHDS]

DS (7) - Frog and Toad (multiple stories)

DD (9) - Heidi

[cloudspinning]

My 6yo ds and I read a variety of picture books. He's enamoured by Kevin Henke's books at the moment. Oh, and we've been reading Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler and Pumpkin Eye by Denise Fleming in preparation for Halloween.

My 10yo dd and I are finishing the Subtle Knife (of the Golden Compass series by Philip Pullman). Before that was Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones and next up is The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo (although she's started this on on her own, so I don't know if we'll end up reading this one together). She also reads some World of Warcraft books with her dad. The latest one is getting sad, so my dh thinks they won't finish it.

cloudspinning

[Aubergine68]

Originally Posted by journeymom

My son is nine years old. Currently we are reading book three of the Percy Jackson series, Titans Curse. It's lots of fun.

Oh, I love these! My daughter and I read them when she was 9, and she enjoyed them, but I am very much looking forward to reading them with my boys in a few years. Such great "boy" books!

[lorijds]

I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird to my girls (age 13 and 10). DH is reading "The Wall and the Wing" to them. I work nights, so he reads to them on the nights I work. I have no idea what his book is about. They read a lot of mysteries, though every once in a while DH reads the entire Harry Potter series to them.

We finally finished "His Dark Materials." I didn't really enjoy the last half of the Subtle Knife. That entire story went on for way too long. The girls and I only finished it through force of will.

We've read the Lord of the Rings, and a couple of Tolkien's short stories.

[Thalia the Muse]

Wow, I'd never heard of The Hidden House -- it looks enchanting!

[nancy926]

5.5-year-old DD: She's going through a Calvin and Hobbes phase right now. I am thinking of starting the Little House books with her soon, or doing some more Magic Tree House or some Beverly Cleary.

3-year-old DD: Sandra Boynton books, Pinkalicious and Purplicious are current faves.

[Llyra]

DD is 4. We've been reading Grimm's fairy tales. They're a bit much for a 4 year old, in parts, but she's passionately interested-- I just edit out anything that's too disturbing. We've also been reading her beloved Richard Scarry books, and Curious George (over and over and over and over....) Other frequent favorites are Dr. Seuss's ABC and Eric Carle's Dragons, Dragons.

DD2 is 19 months old and very busy, and the only book in the whole world she'll sit still for is Corduroy. So we read it at least three times daily.

DS is also 19 months. He chews on books, so he's limited to cloth books and board books. His current favorite is Bob the Builder's Shapes (I can't remember the exact title). He likes anything with animals, trucks, or babies in it.

[BaBaBa]

Originally Posted by Llyra

DD2 is 19 months old and very busy, and the only book in the whole world she'll sit still for is Corduroy. So we read it at least three times daily.

Corduroy here too with 21 month DD!

[Periwinkle]

We have been reading the "Little House" series, in order. Currently on book 4 (By the Shores of Silver Lake). They're amazing. We do only minor editing for the racist references (against American Indians). The kids are 3 and 6 now but have been reading them since 2 (just hanging around listening while we read to older ones) and 5. But now at age 3 1/2 ds is getting into it too.