Bed-time story for Toddler

[YBR]

We've been reading through the Narnia series at bedtime for 18mo DD, but it will come to an end soon. Does anyone have any suggestions for what next?
I'd like something that's reasonably appropriate for a toddler without being too annoying/tedious for an adult, and hopefully will keep us going for a while.
Ideally something with shorter chapters than the Narnia books though.
Any ideas?

Tbh, I find that any old thing like lists of ingredients, instruction manuals or old Christmas cards do the job. If hey need more intellectual stimulation, perhaps visit the library together (reference section, of course) and choose something together?

Wow! I'm impressed! My 16mo loses interest a couple of pages into The Tiger Who Came To Tea, no way on earth would she sit through anything more!

You may find as she gets older she will need the shorter books, or ones with more pictures so she can engage with them more if that makes sense. When they are little its just words but as they get older its more about the story.

Julia Donalson books are lovely.

Um..

Picture books.

18 month old er... Dear Zoo!? Make it fun? Laugh a bit, make animal noises?

Sorry, I posted a flippant replay assuming this was a pisstake.

Julia Donaldson books almost universally fantastic for toddlers, as are the 'aliens love underpants' books.

How old is toddler and what are heir interests?

At 18mo my kids could recite 'Dear Zoo', 'Slinky Malinky' and 'Dear Moon'! Oh and 'How do Dinosaurs eat their food/ go to bed etc.'

Read stuff that will help your child's vocab and storytelling. I doubt she's getting a lot from the Narnia books even if they're a great read for you.

Sorry, 'Goodnight Moon'. That's a great one. You can talk about the pictures in picture books. They start learning how to piece a storyline together, what's going to happen next, what is that person feeling etc.

Peace at last/whatever next and other Jill murphy books are also good.

Oh yes, 5 minutes peace is brilliant!

I agree that she's almost certainly old enough for actual picture books!

She has loads of picture books, counting, alphabet, colours, tactile ones etc, and plays/engages with them lots during the day; plus DH takes her to the library (esp. wriggly readers) frequently. She seems to like carrying/flipping through boring (looking) adult books too.
She finds books generally exciting (which is partly why we read her stories rather than share picture books at bedtime).
So we've been reading stories while she wriggles/chatters/plays/eventually settles in her cot. So no she's not engaging with the story, and we don't make her pay attention, but she's got the idea it's story time, and that it preceeds sleep!

P.S. Narnia is an improvement on Grimm's Tales (the original and very gory version) that DH insisted on reading to DD previously.

Paddington?

Winnie the Pooh is always good - nice mix of small pictures and words too. Also, Emily Gravett's Again seems to work.

The Magic Faraway Tree, or Roald Dahl books, we read The Enormous Crocodile tonight which was great because it's not too long and has lots of pictures. We read The Worst Witch while my DD was quite young. She also loved (still does) made up stories with her and her friends getting into all sorts of adventures.

Did you really read The Last Battle to an 18mo? And even The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is wildly inappropriate with Aslan's death and loads of violence.

This is a very strange thread.

Basically, for your benefit, you are reading a story while she plays. Surely you could all get much more out of the time if you actually read a story with pictures and a story she could engage with.

If you're just reading something she doesn't engage with, why don't you read the book you are reading? I don't see why it has to be kiddie in any way. How about Jacob de Zoet? That's brilliant.