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

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

My absolute favourites to read to my 3 year old are the paper dolls, the tiger who came to tea and we're going on a bear hunt. Her favourites are probably the Winnie the witch books. I can't wait til she's a bit older so we can read Harry Potter though

The Roalf Dahl books have been magical to re-read to my dcs.

I did love the chroinicals of Nania books when I was a child, but both dcs have shown no interest.

Now that my kids are older they prefer to read by themselves, although they do enjoy reading to each other sometimes too!

When they were younger, we all loved "Stuck" by Oliver Jeffers and The Pirates Next Door by Johnny Duddle. Really lovely books to read out loud.

The Mr Gum series by Andy Stanton. The voices of the characters are obvious. The fairy that lives in the bath is Dawn French. Polly is a high pitched cockney. Billy William the third is Boycie. Alan Taylor has a deep mellifluous voice. Mr Gum is an angry growl. The stories are funny and weird. I forced ds2 to have them as bedtime stories because I enjoyed reading them aloud to ds1.

Ella Burfoot is an excellent author and illustrator.

Her book, “Darkness slipped in” is great at bedtime for making Darkness seem like a familiar friend. Our absolute favourite though is “Betty and the Yeti”; lovely to read with rhymes much more inventive than JDs, great pictures and a lovely warm tale about not judging a book by it’s cover. Both of my sons have loved it and we know it off by heart..we’re often asked to recite it in the car.

My 5 year old is currently loving Pippi Longstocking, it’s very of it’s time but brilliantly funny. I may be using my best Swedish accents when reading

I love reading books like matilda and where is my hat? . Books with humour that are suitable for both adults and children are the best because it means that we both enjoy reading.

The Hairy Maclairy books were lovely to read aloud, so well-paced with the flow of words. Zachary Quack was the best.

We have found some fantastic books with the DC (both still under 6). Supertato, many of the Julia Donaldson ones but particularly Room on the Broom, Oi Frog and the sequels. My eldest has just started to like a bit of Roald Dahl and the Rainbow Fairies books. I can't wait to read CS Lewis and the Harry Potter books with them when they're a bit older.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a classic that both DC adore. Funny Bones, goes down very well around Halloween time! The Jolly Postman which DD was entranced with when she first read it. The Mog books but not the last one (sob!). And the latest is the
Harry Potter series but I think we'll take our time with those as the DC are a bit too young for the later books.

My kids enjoy being read Roald Dahl and David Walliams.

I like reading an old Australian book from the 70s called A Pet for Mrs Arbuckle to my DC aged 2. It’s very funny and there are jokes for the parents (always a winner). Also it includes interesting animals such as a sloth, echidna and anteater - which makes a change from the boring old lions/zebras/giraffes that seem to populate most picture books.

When my children were little we loved the Allan and Janet Ahlberg books - Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo were our favourites. And their Jolly Postman books are great too!

As pp have said, rhyming books with a good rhythm are my my 4 year olds faves eg Julia Donaldson ones and Oi Dog/ Oi Frog. I love old ones that remind me of my childhood - where the wild things are, and the very hungry caterpillar

DD loved all books, especially hearing the same one night after night. We read a lot of Debi Gliori's No Matter What, Harry Maclary and Julia Donaldson ( my favourite was Paper Dolls).

Me and my sis were very lucky in that our mum read to us every night for years. I remember a lot of Enid Blyton, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Black Bauty among many others. We also had the Storyteller (Marshall Cavendish) partwork which was awesome and welistened/read it over and over - some of the tapes became warped due to over use and I'm sure it helped me to read early.
My daughter is nearly 2 and has loved several picture story books, including Moana and the Sea, The Bear and the Piano and The Tiger who came to Tea. She keeps picking up a thick Brambly Hedge book that my best friend bought for her and I sometimes ignore the story and talk through the pictures, what we can see and what all the characters are doing, how they live etc. I always try to bring stories alive when I read to her, doing special voices and actions. Some are really fun to do!

We are LOVING the Famous Five at the moment! We are in the middle of the first one in the series and every night she begs me to read another chapter - even more so this evening when she saw with great excitement that the next chapter is called 'Prisoners!'
THE EXCITEMENT!!!!

We lived Julia Donaldson when my daughter was younger and also where the wild things are. Now moved on and currently reading Malory Towers to me but I finished tonight reading Winnie the Pooh to her. She loved the poem now I am six at the end and thought I must be a published author as I used to say it all the time to her when she was actually six (now eight but still lives being read to).

Paper dolls is my favourite, it's a beautiful story and the illustration is perfect.

My daughter is 5. Our favourite book to read together is Thumbelina. It was my book from when I was a little girl. We read it at least once a week, sometimes as a bedtime story snuggled in bed, sometimes on the sofa. My daughter knows it off by heart, and she can read now, so we take it in turns to read pages

Room on a Broom... I read it particularly well! I also really enjoy reading the Snail and the Whale. We're trying out some Dr Seuss at the minute - the Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish. Such fun to read!

I can't wait until my oldest is ready for Enid Blyton and JK Rowling!

Favourite fun books have to be the My Friend Bear series. We read them so much DD knew all the words and appeared to read them, even before she could read that well!

Snuggle favourites have to be anything Katie Morag. Very fond memories of reading them and studying every last detail of the beautiful illustrations.

When my children were younger I used to love reading the Mr Gum books by Andy Stanton. They were really quirky.

I can't believe there is so much love for Paper Dolls. I can't get through it without sobbing. My toddler adores Topsy and Tim and the Elmer books. I'm a big fan of Meg and Mog and the Oi Dog series

We love dear zoo and the very hungry Caterpillar.

Current favourites are meet the parents by Peter bently which is just brilliant - they love talking about the pictures and what the children are doing and are you sitting comfortably by Leigh hodgkinson which we ended up buying as there was a mini riot when we had to return it to the library!