books to soothe the active toddler?

[kate_nepveu]

SteelyKid having moved to a twin bed, we're looking to establish some more elaborate bedtime routines, hopefully ones that will signal her to stop bouncing off the walls much sooner than she often does. So what are your favorite soothing bedtime books, besides Goodnight Moon? Note she does not have a very long attention span yet, and in fact Goodnight Moon is about as long as she'll sit for being read to.

(Also posted to plan_survive.)

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Comments

[the_rck]

We used Sandra Boynton's Pajama Time. She's got at least one other bedtime book. I just can't remember the title.

[kate_nepveu]

Per plan_survive, it is in fact _The Bedtime Book_. =>

(Actually, subsequent research suggests it is actually _The Going to Bed Book_. Whoops!)

We love Sandra Boynton and should've just bought her entire catalog months ago.

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

The Going to Bed Book was a favorite of our kids too.

[flea]

I'm firmly of the opinion that bedtime books don't need to be about bed, but if that's a desideratum Sandra Boynton has a "Going to Bed Book" and we have one that's a bit sappy but kinda nice called "Deep Down in the Woods At Sleepytime." Both available as board books, if that's still a consideration.

Other books at about the Goodnight Moon level I love include Jamberry and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy (both with lots of rhymes which I find soothing). Kids vary a lot in attention span for books in my experience. Casper would tolerate the shorter Beatrix Potters at just-two (and would also sit and watch a whole movie! we took her to her first theater movie at 26 months and she was fine), while Dillo had a much shorter attention span for a long time (still gets wiggly in movies at 4!).

[kate_nepveu]

Well, no, but I figure they're more likely to be.

Thanks for the recs!

[marydell]

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman. (A lot of the pages have no words so you can provide whatever amount of narration she enjoys).

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks!

[marydell]

Also, when he was wee, we would read Guess How Much I Love You, but YE GODS that thing goes on forever. By the time he became reasonably aware of books we were already tired of reading it.

[marydell]

(...but it's very very soothing)

[marshasisolak]

Llama Llama, Red Pajama and--when she's a little older--A Sleepy Story by Elisabeth Burrowes.

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks!

[mkozlows]

Do they have to be soothing books? We always read whatever book he picked out. Lots of Dr. Seuss, Buzz Said the Bee[1], Is Your Mama a Llama?, &c.

[1] I love the deadpan product description there: "As one animal sits on another in an accumulating progression, the reader learns the sounds each animal makes."

[kate_nepveu]

Yeah, she's too easily excited by fun things in her books to risk non-soothing things at bedtime. I mean, we're talking about a kid who will jump up and down upon finding Goldbug in _Cars and Trucks and Things That Go_, here.

[mkozlows]

Well, who doesn't get excited by finding Goldbug...

[mariness]

I don't quite think it counts as soothing, but when I was little, if I had been good, I got Green Eggs and Ham in Full Silly Voice. It's one of the few books I remember clearly from that age, quite possibly since it was read to me so often. Maybe the familiarity made it soothing to me.

[kate_nepveu]

Seuss is still mostly too long for her, though we look forward to it.

[kiplet]

A Lot of Otters is short and sweet and absolutely signals to Taran that it's bedtime. One of her favorite nighttime books now. Highly recommended.

[rilina]

Not edtime stories, but I like the gentleness of Greg Foley's Thank You, Bear and it's sequels.

Wow, Said the Owl by Hopgood (sp?) has great illustrations--a nice concept book.

I also like A Book of Sleep by Na, though I think conceptually the art skews a bit older.

Kitten's First Full Moon by Henkes is sweet as well--I love the use of shapes in the pictures. Some of Henkes other books are equally simple, though not so bedtime-themes, such as A Good Day.

[(Anonymous)]

Asked a preschool teacher friend of mine, and she actually recommended you always use Goodnight Moon (or another soothing book) as the Signal Book.

Maybe choose three books total, including the Signal Book, and only have those visible to her. The others can be anything of a length she can handle of interest to you. Read the first one or two, and then always end with the Signal Book.

She also said its likely that the content of the book isn't nearly as important as the fact you are a good reader. I.e., she is probably reacting to *your* energy more than the books'.

[princessofgeeks]

The Baby Blue Cat Who Said No by Pryor

I Love You This Much

Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel might be a bit long, but the parallel structure makes it so easy to follow and it's my favorite children's book of all time.

The Quiet Evening by Hurd

Any of Maurice Sendak's Little Bear books... I think he was the illustrator and someone else wrote them? They are charming.

And one terrifically beautiful black and white line drawing book of the city saying goodnight, which I think it's called Goodnight, Goodnight but I can't find my copy!!!

Happy bedtime. I had a kid who Did Not Sleep and a book and a song and a backscratch really helped him. Winding down is so important.

[jjhunter]

For future reference (too long now & too sophisticated now):

I love, love, love 'Ox-Cart Man', 'Blueberries for Sal', and 'Miss Rumphius'.

[janni]

Possibly Jane Yolen's How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

On general principles if she hasn't read it yet you need to get her Mo Willems' Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, too, but I suspect that one will leave her more awake rather than less. :-)

[castiron]

Younger Son's favorite bedtime books are mostly Sandra Boynton books (Going to Bed Book, Red Hat Blue Hat, Doggies, Barnyard Dance, Moo Baa La La La)

Other favorites:
Red Train (by Will Grace; has clown monkeys that creep out spouse & me, but is otherwise fun and has a great rhythm; alas, currently seems to be out of print)
Good Night Gorilla
Owl Babies
Trucks (by Byron Barton) (probably too exciting for SteelyKid)
some book with pictures of babies whose title I can't remember (He's just old enough to be aware of babies as entities that are actually smaller than him, which I suspect is why he likes that book.)

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

Yes, on the Moo, Baa, La La La. Definitely.

[chomiji]

I think I once recommended to you Taro Yashima's Umbrella, which is full of lovely onomatopoeia: it's about a little girl of nursery school age who gets an umbrella for her birthday and then longs for a rainy day on which to use it. This was a big hit with my daughter.

Sandra Boynton is lots of fun: Pajama Time is an example.

Over in the Meadow is a lovely, soothing counting poem. This edition has illustrations by award-winner Jack Ezra Keats, who did The Snowy Day.

Half a Moon and One Whole Star is a dreamy poem about a little girl going to bed, and all the interesting things that are happening during the night as she sleeps. It might be a little old for her yet.

[missyb]

Oooh, I still know Goodnight, Moon by heart. Probably always will, too.

Alex always loved Eric Carle's books at bedtime. They have a certain soothing cadence to them, particularly Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

On the Margaret Wise Brown list, please include The Big Red Barn. Like Goodnight Moon, it gets very quiet and whispery towards the end, which is perfect for the sleepy kid.

I'm also a fan of Bedtime, Everybody! by Mordicai Gerstein, the story of a little girl who can't get her stuffed animals to go to sleep. If you have any voice-actor in your soul, you'll enjoy doing all the different animals, and it, too, ends with everybody falling asleep.

My kids also enjoyed lullabys that weren't really lullabys. "To Each His Dulcinea" usually worked pretty well, as did "In My Life."

It's been a good 5-7 years since I got to read them books like this. I'm getting all sniffly remembering it.

[adrian_turtle]

Jane Yolen's "How Do Dinosaurs Go To Bed?" is excellent. All her dinosaur books are somewhat fractal, and you can read more details about each dinosaur as her attention span (and, presumably, her interest in dinosaurs) grows over the next year or so.