National Storytelling Week – Our Bookshelf

This week is National Storytelling Week, celebrating the joy in sharing a story and telling a tale. We have always thought it is important to read to Lucas, we have books all over the house in nearly every room and every night we read several bedtime stories. I love reading to him not only because of the educational and imaginative benefits for him but selfishly I love that quiet time with him and being able to share with him the joy of a book is something I absolutely treasure.

Lucas is two and a half and will sit happily through most story books now and we can chat about the illustrations and what is coming next. In honour of National Storytelling Week I thought I’d share the stories we are enjoying the most at bedtime.

Our newest book is The Disgusting Sandwich which was bought for Lucas solely based on a badger being on the cover but is actually a brilliant book too! I love the illustrations in this one and it gives us plenty to chatter about and lots of animals to spot. Our oldest book is the little Peter Rabbit, a book from my childhood; with Peter having a reinvention on Cbeebies I’ve started to introduce him to Lucas. He loves anything with animals so we may start to work our way through some more Beatrix Potter. Rabbityness is one of my favourites and has really gripped Lucas, the illustrations are simple but bold and the story is very sweet and lovely to read. Starting to realise that all our favourites are animals based our next one is Six Dinner Sid! I love this book, it’s all about a cheeky cat who has six different house he visits; a book with a cat in will always win Lucas over. Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam never leaves our bookshelf, when Lucas first received it for a gift we read it every night for nearly two weeks. Luckily both me and my husband love to read it, it’s the tale of two robber dogs who realise they shouldn’t have turned to the life of crime and find a new hobby; we try and spot the spider on every page! I had to include The Dinosaur That Pooped a Planet and admit that these books really make me laugh, I’m sure that I’m not the target audience but I can’t help it! I think you can understand the gist of the story from the title but it is perfect for little boys and girls with a sense of humour.

Me and my husband both have memories of being read stories when we were younger and even now our favourite books are ones which were read to us; The Hobbit and Treasure Island. I remember asking my mum to read just one more chapter of The Hobbit before I went to sleep as we were both sat in bed enjoying the quiet time together. I’m looking forward to sharing these books with all three of my boys and many, many more! I’d love to know what stories you remember being read to you and do you read them to your children now?