Mumsnet users share with Scottish Friendly their favourite books to read to their children

[EllieMumsnet]

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Reading to your DCs can be a great source of not only downtime and bonding but it can also help your children learn and develop. Many of our most nostalgic memories contain at least one recollection of our parents reading our favourite book to us, therefore Scottish Friendly would love to know which your favourite books are to read to your children and why? Plus what are your favourite childhood books?

Do you love reading the classic Winnie the Pooh because you get to do all the voices? Perhaps your DC loves adventure books and you’re not one to shy away from acting out the scenes? Or do you love a books that your child can read along with you? Maybe you and your DC love to get all cosy with some pillows and blankets and read their favourite Roald Dahl book together?

Here’s what Scottish Friendly have to say: “With just two weeks left of summer, perhaps it’s getting to that time when you’re looking for new ideas to keep your little darlings amused. Even if it’s just to give yourself the chance of a well-deserved cuppa and to put your feet up for longer than 5 minutes!

Scottish Friendly is celebrating 20 years of supporting children’s literacy with a game your kids can play called ‘Letterfall’. It’s fun and educational too, and to celebrate this milestone anniversary we’ve added an extra twist! Now kids all over the UK can play to try to beat the current high score for a chance to win a fantastic prize for their school – an iPad Pro, iPad and an iPad Mini are all up for grabs! Visit the site to play (terms apply, more details on the website.)”

Whatever your favourite book to read to your child is and why, share it on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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We love Dogger, Alfie, Mog, Hairy Mclairy, Winnie the Pooh, Meg and Mog, all the classics. DS particularly loves the Apple Tree Farm series and The Little Red Hen. We go to the library regularly and always ask for books as presents. I can't wait to share all my childhood favourites with him as he gets older!

I used to love reading the Julia Donaldson books with my dd's. Superworm was dd2 favourite, she could practically recite it by 3!

From my childhood it has to be all the Roald Dahl books they're just fabulous to a child's imagination I remember reading them at the end of the day in primary school and it was my favourite part of the day we'd take it in turns to read a chapter or page.
With my children I've passed on the reading bug they love it! We sometimes act the characters out (eg the Gruffalo) or watch the film adaption along with reading the book or dress up as the characters. I settle mine down on there favourite cushion in the day and we'll read together classics and new ones an they pick a couple of new books a month from the store or we'll go the library to get them used to looking after somthing that doesn't belong to them.
Our top favourite books:
Old bear
Cat in the hat
5 minutes peace
Peter Rabbit
The Gruffalo
Moomin and the wishing star
Goodbye Moon
Charlie and Lola series of books

My DS is 11 months and he loves Dear Zoo - he laughs his wee head off when he sees the monkey!

He also like a the Ten Little... books and the Eric Carle ones.

BFG every time. Classic

DD is 16 months and our favourites are ‘Where’s Bear’ by Emily Gravett (she likes saying ‘no’ when bear isn’t in the fish tank) and Julia Donaldson’s ‘Paper Dolls’ which made me cry the first time I read it . She’s loved being read to since she was tiny and I’m hoping that it continues - I can’t wait to read my childhood favourites like Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl to her

I like it when...... when they were very little.

Ds2. Captain Underpants.

My sons favourites to read are Elmer and Winnie the Pooh because he has the soft toys to cuddle whilst I'm reading. He loves hearing the stories about the character he's holding in his arms in bed!

Anything by Arthur Lobel. These are properly sweet, original and creative stories, no hastily concocted formulaic garbage. Owl at home, frog and toad are friends and Mouse Soup are the titles we have. We rescued them from purge of young children's books this morning, since both DSs are a bit old for their old picture books, and we had run out of space for any new ones!

Anything Julia Donaldson from birth till about 4. Thereafter we’ve enjoyed Enid Blyton’s far away tree series and the island of adventure so far. Currently enjoying reading the first Harry Potter to my six year old.

Peace At Last as it was my favourite as a kid and our family all know it off by heart. Plus now that amount of tiredness is totally relatable!

We have read a variety of books in our household, my 5 and 6 year old have make the decision to move away from picture books as their bedtime story to what they call chapter books. The first we read was the Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher and oh my days I'd recommend that book to anybody it's fab we use it as an advent calendar a chapter a nice in the run up to the big day 😁. At present we are working our way through our Roald Dahl collection and their absolutely loving them. Although our next book is going to be the Creamers again by Tom Fletcher and im really looking forward to starting it. But we'll be back to the classics after that with Enid's Famous Five books 😁

I read The Velveteen Rabbit to my little boy. It is my old copy that I had as a child, and reading it always brings back lovely memories of my grandma reading it to me from my own childhood.

We’ve quite recently read the Hobbit, which I really loved.

My DD is 3. We are reading loving The great bunnie bake off since Easter!
It’s very cute. And Furgal is fuming to help her temper a little.
Room on a broom is a form gave too, she likes to recite the dragon bits. 😆

My children are 7 and their favourite book is Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. It has monsters, demons, heroes and villains, dragons, princesses, giants, castles and kings. It's over a thousand years old and is the longest poem ever written, yet the children's version captivates a little boy's imagination as if it was written today. The only downside is the incredibly sad ending.

I would add that the UK needs to do more to promote foreign literature (while not forgetting its own amazing authors) to children. There are some amazing books to be rediscovered out there -- unloved and out of print in English, yet still incredibly popular in other languages.

Goodnight Moon is a big hit in our house. And Owl Babies. 🦉🦉🦉☺️

DS is 8 and we still read before bedtime. He loves Roald Dahl, especially George's Marvellous Medicine and Danny Champion of the World. And he also loves the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

His favourite books when younger were Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and The Stinky Cheese Man.

Doctor Dog, Diary of a Killer Cat, Little Rabbit Foo-Foo

Harry Potter - I love them too!

Littlest loves Peck Peck Peck by lucy cousins - such a lovely book and nice to have one featuring a Dad as well!
Biggest loves the pirate cruncher

Julia Donaldson's books are great, especially the stick man

We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen is a classic in our household. We tend to read it altogether and the use of onomatopoeia within the book makes the story telling even more exciting!

At the moment we love Winnie the pooh, piglet is her absolute favourite. Hope she will inherit the love of reading i had as a child

Enid Blyton 'The Five Find-Outers and Dog' mystery stories.