What are you toddler's favourite bedtime stories?

[CravingSunshine]

I'd love to expand our collections. Here are our faves:
Peace at Last (Jill Murphy) www.amazon.co.uk/Peace-At-Last-Jill-Murphy/dp/0230015484/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340627834&sr=1-1
Say Goodnight to the Sleepy Animals (Ian Whybrow and Ed Eaves) www.amazon.co.uk/Say-Goodnight-Sleepy-Animals-Whybrow/dp/0230756077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340627945&sr=1-1
Sleepy Me (Cee Biscoe and Marni McGee) www.amazon.co.uk/Sleepy-Me-Marni-McGee/dp/1848951507

but that's only 3 books to rotate! DS loves any books with bears and owls.

Whatever next (all about a bear & owl who go to the moon)
The gruffalo
Guess how much I love you
Emma's lamb
Any of the kipper books (surprising number involve bears and owls!)
Room on the broom
Mog
One ted fell out of bed
Winnie the pooh (bears & owls galore!)
The very busy spider
We're going on a best hunt

I could go on forever, I have a book obsession which luckily for me my 21mo DD seems to have inherited :-D but there are the favourites for her at the mo, depending on if it is me or DH doing the reading (apparently his gruffalo is sub standard but my Emma's lamb is not up to scratch )

Go mad at the library, you can never have too many books :)

excellent topic!
The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child (which I am actively avoiding at present because there is only so many times I can read that story...)
Meg and Mog
Dinosaur Dig (which combines dinosaurs and diggers/trucks - my DD LOVES it to bits, not so much for the trucks, but for the dinosaurs)
Anything by Mem Fox (Australian author) - Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, Possum Magic, Harriet You'll Drive Me Wild and Where is the Green Sheep. There are loads more though and she writes beautifully.
The Ahlbergs - Each Peach and Peepo etc
Diary of a Wombat (hilarious)
Hairy McLairy stories
Oliver Jeffers - particularly Stuck and Lost

So many...

And, sorry for lack of author - but there is one called Hugless Douglas which my DM found. It is a fabulous story about a baby bear who is looking for his perfect hug. The illustrations are very funny.

You Choose is his all time favourite, where he can choose his family, house, food, pets, job etc.

He also likes shark in the park and anything with dinosaurs!

Another great one is I took the Moon for a Walk by Alison Jay

tabby mctat and monkey puzzle by julia mcdonald also :)

Oh sooooo many...
That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown - absolute favourite
Emily Brown and the Thing
A Squash and a Squeeze
Where the Wild Things Are
In the Dark Dark Forrest
Not Now Bernard
NO DAVID!
Zogg
..... sure there are loads more...love this thread

Babbit is a good one.

Others not already mentioned:

The Snail and the Whale
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy
How to Grow a Dinosaur
Supermarket Zoo
JD's Tales from Acorn Wood lift the flap books
Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
Maisy Mouse First Experiences books

i had no idea until now but I just discovered 'A Squash and a Squeeze' was actually a song before it was a book

Babbit (before it got stuck in the bottom of the buggy with an upturned beaker of milk)
Owl babies
Guess how much I love you
What the ladybird heard (car and nee nah don't rhyme...)
We're going on a bear hunt
Mog
The very hungry caterpillar
Stick man
The elves and the shoemaker
The enormous turnip
And some manky old book about opposites with no words, just pictures!

I love this thread because I wondered if I should be sticking to 'easier' books but this is so encouraging!

Oh and everyone I know has Where's Spot!

shrilly distraught voice Naughty Spot, its dinner time, where can he be???

Let me bleedin' guess...

Bears: The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland is one of DD's (2.3) all-time favourites. It has a great rhythm and lots of roaring noises- buy some strepsils...

Owls: I'm not scared by Jonathan Allen- massive hit when DD was a bit younger.

Many of our favourites have been mentioned. I love Where the Wild Things Are, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, and Tabby McTat :)

Two more that are perfect for bedtime (with 2.3 year old dd) are:

YAWN by Nick Sharratt and Sally Symes, in which a very contagious yawn is passed from baby to cat to fish to bird to mole to elephant, and inevitably to the toddler being read to. The yawn itself is a big round hole in every page, which my dd seems to get a kick out of, and by the end of the book all the animals decide that it's time for bed.

Tuck Me In! by Dean Hacohen and Sherry Scharschmidt, in which the toddler gets to tuck in a series of cute baby animals by turning half-pages made to look like cozy blankets, before coming to the end of the book when it's his/her own turn to be tucked in.

We read three books at bedtime and the first two can be anything that dd chooses from her bookshelf, but we usually try to make one of these the last book we read - they are both such great transitions from story to bedtime.

Maisy's bedtime

Meg and Mog (the one about the car)

A really annoying pop up book called Truck jam which I got from a second hand book stall at a fair and have regretted ever since

My 21 month old DS loves Dig, Dig ,Digging by Margaret Mayo. It has been a firm favourite over the past 8 months. I can now recite most pages by heart, and he still loves it! I don't.......

Julia Donaldson - What the ladybird Heard, Room on the broom and Tyrannosaurus Drip (and pretty much any of her books) are some of DS2's favourites. He also loves the Meg & Mog books, Alfie books and Little Wizard & Bright Stanley

I've been trying to find this thread again for a while to post a couple of rhyming stories that we have really enjoyed that aren't by JD. Just for a change, like.

The Giant Jam Sandwich is just wonderful. About a wasp invasion in Itching Down. Funny story, great details in the pictures, rhymes that seem just on the verge of failing in some way. As dd told me recently - "If we made a giant sandwich, we could trap them in it."

I'm sure I saw a dinosaur really interested her too. The story is about mass hysteria in a seaside town when an apparent dinosaur spotting is reported, with all sorts of new people arriving to try and see it. Again, the pictures really have something to add to the storytelling - tiny bits of the dinosaur may be visible throughout. I'm not sure what dd likes about it, but it is a winner, she has her own binoculars now made out of cardboard tubes for searching for dinosaurs herself.

Great thread - I've been trying to get some ideas for other books I could get my bookworm DD. Our favourites are:

The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo's Child (current obsession!)
Room on the Broom
Squash and a Squeeze
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Peepo
Each Peach Pear Plum
Aaargh Spider! - so funny hearing DD (16mths) repeating "AAARGH Spider - Out You Go!"
Green Eggs and Ham (can you tell my DD likes rhyming books!)
Olly and Me books by Shirley Hughes - Chatting, Bouncing, Hiding and Giving
Shark in the Dark
One Ted Fell Out of Bed
Goodnight to the Sleepy Animals (great pre-bed book)
Octonauts books [slightly embarrassed, but she likes animals, so lots to talk about in the pictures]
Hugless Douglas

One really great book no one has mentioned is Pass the Jam, Jim. I had to read this five times in a row once. Lots of lovely pictures to talk about too. She also likes Moon Rabbit, although there's a lot of text in that one.

DD had just discovered Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and loves him!
She's also a cat in the Hat fan!

Yes yes to Julia Donaldson and all Hairy McClary / Scarface Claw. DS (2 and a half) also v keen on Benedict Blathwayt - Dougal the Digger and The Runaway Train - beautiful detailed illustrations.

Tabby McTat, Rumble in the Jungle, Hairy McClary, My cat likes to sleep in boxes...these are DS's (2.6) current favourites. The trouble is getting him to accept new books tbh but am looking to introduce Kipper, the Gruffalo and the Tiger who came to tea soon!

Penguin is a great favourite here.
Owl Babies
Kipper, especially the Colours and Counting ones
Sharing a Shell
Lost and Found, How To Catch A Star, by Oliver Jeffers
Goodnight Gorilla - barely any words, loads to talk about
Stick Man
Peppa Pig stories
Postman Pat stories
Rabbit's Nap
You and Me, Little Bear
Russell The Sheep
Say hello to the dinosaurs

Not Now Bernard. Repeatedly. I have come to think the illustrations are genius.

Another vote for Julia Donaldson (particularly Tabby McTat and The Gruffalo's Child) and 'Again!'
Anything Hairy McLary, Slinky Malinki or (especially) Schnitzel von Krumm-related
I Don't Want to Go To Bed is pretty apt
We have a 'read together' book before bed and then a 'bedtime story' sort of thing; for the latter I go for Winnie the Pooh, Gobbolino the Witch's Cat or the legendary Seuss' Sleep Book