The Story: It is the end of the day and the little animals are going home to get ready for bed. We join mice, rabbits, badgers, squirrels, bears and hedgehogs as they have supper, have a bath, read stories, climb the stairs, watch the stars and get into bed. Then we say goodnight.
Bedtime for Little Ones is so different from the hilarious Underpants books written by Claire Freedman that it was a few days before I realised that she had written them both. My daughter loves this gentle, rhyming story about various animals getting ready for bed. The first spread has a beautifully drawn village picture and shows all the animals going home and the final spread shows the village in the dark. In between we follow the bedtime routine through the actions of different animal families and there is always one small animal to look for who is doing something different to his brothers and sisters.
Gail Yerrill has drawn really cute animals who all have their own soft toys to cuddle up to and the glitter in the illustrations is a huge hit with my daughter. This is a great book for reinforcing the concept of a bedtime routine and children will identify with the animals in a familiar situation, my daughter loves looking for the ‘rogue’ animal who is not behaving like his brothers and sisters!
If you are trying to implement a bedtime routine this is a great story to help. It is a lovely, gentle bedtime story which culminates in sweet dream wishes to all the animals and to the child.
Author: Claire Freedman / Illustrator: Gail Yerrill
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