Picture books about bedtime can often help children (and parents) to survive the ritual of bedtime! Bedtime can be one of the most fraught, difficult times of the day. Children are tired, parents are tired and there is often resistance to the whole bedtime routine. There are so many lovely bedtime stories that introduce characters going through various stages of getting ready for bed, our favourites include procrastinating bunnies, baths full of animals, ugly pyjamas and a bear who can’t get to sleep.
Do your children have their own bedtime procrastination techniques like these characters?
I ♡ Bedtime by Clara Vulliamy
Martha is determined to get her bothers, Pip and Monty, into bed so she can spend time with her babysitter, Grace-next-door, but their delaying tactics including pretending to be super bunnies and practising gym.
I Heart Bedtime (Martha and the Bunny Brothers)
by Clara Vulliamy [HarperCollins Publishers]
£6.99
· 
EUR 8,49
· 
EUR 8,25
· 
EUR 8,12
· 
$7.27
Time for Bed, Fred! by Yasmeen Ismail
Puppy Fred employs all sorts of tactics to avoid getting into his basket, his behaviour is just like a small child!
by Yasmeen Ismail [Bloomsbury Publishing PLC]
£6.99
· EUR 7,56
· EUR 8,45
· EUR 8,75
· $10.43
I am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go to Bed by Lauren Child
Lola’s delaying tactics include lions, tigers and whales. In the end Lola gets to bed but brother Charlie isn’t so lucky, his bed is already occupied!
I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go to Bed (Charlie and Lola)
by Lauren Child [Orchard Books]
£5.99
· EUR 6,99
· EUR 8,40
· EUR 8,64
· $12.19
Do you have a going to bed ritual?
Big, Red Bath by Julia Jarman and Adrian Reynolds
Ben and Bella’s bathtime turns into an extraordinary adventure when they are joined by a succession of animals!
Big Red Bath (Orchard Red Apple)
by Julia Jarman [Orchard Books]
£6.98
· EUR 8,89
· EUR 8,43
· EUR 8,75
· $6.97
Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton
It’s time for the animals to put on their pyjamas in time for one last dance before bed – old, new, ugly, blue, any pyjamas will do!
Pajama Time! (Boynton on Board)
by Sandra Boynton [Workman Publishing Company]
£5.99
· EUR 7,50
· EUR 6,31
· EUR 7,29
· $5.54
Say Goodnight to the Sleepy Animals by Ian Whybrow and Ed Eaves
Cat goes for a walk to say goodnight to all the sleepy animals who are getting ready for bed then returns home to her own sleepy kittens.
Say Goodnight to the Sleepy Animals! (Say Hello)
by Ian Whybrow [Pan Macmillan]
£0.01
· EUR 6,99
· EUR 7,21
· EUR 4,34
· $147.60
Bedtime Little Ones by Claire Freedman and Gail Yerrill
The bedtime routine is shown through the activities of various little animals. My daughter loves looking for the one little rogue animal that is not getting ready as s/he should!
by Claire Freedman [Little Tiger Press Group]
£6.79
· EUR 7,50
· EUR 7,23
· EUR 7,29
· $30.78
But what do these characters do when they can’t get to sleep?
Maisy goes Camping by Lucy Cousins
It’s a bit squashed when Eddie tries to get into the tent with Maisy and her friends but luckily they find a solution so that they can all go to sleep.
by Lucy Cousins [Walker Books Ltd]
£5.99
· EUR 7,50
· EUR 6,02
· EUR 7,29
· $9.30
Dog Loves Counting by Louise Yates
Dog doesn’t just count sheep when he can’t sleep. His counting leads him to meet up with a menagerie of extraordinary animals!
by LOUISE YATES [Red Fox Picture Books]
£5.99
· EUR 8,49
· EUR 8,36
· EUR 8,75
· $11.28
Peace at Last! by Jill Murphy
Mr Bear is thwarted when he tries to find a quiet place to sleep, who would have guessed that there is so much noise at night!
by Jill Murphy [MacMillan Children's Books]
£6.99
· EUR 12,11
· EUR 8,36
· EUR 8,32
· $13.30
Do you have a favourite picture book about getting ready for bed? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.
My favorite bedtime book is also a Sandra Boynton one: The Going to Bed Book. I am a sailor, and I adore the line on the last page that reads, “The moon is high, the sea is deep. They rock and rock and rock to sleep.” I also love that its short enough to read when we’re running late for lights out – they get plenty of read aloud earlier. ( I found you on the Kid Lit Blog Hop.)
The Going to Bed book is another great one, Sandra’s rhymes are really awesome 🙂
I always adore your lists. This one is great. I cannot wait to search for these books at the library this weekend. Hopping over as part of the Kid Lit Blog Hop.
Thank you Jenny 🙂 Have a great library visit.
Hi Catherine,
I’ve hopped over from the Kid Lit Blog Hop. My kiddos are much older now but they would ask us to read them anything we had around just to stay up late. They could get away with it because they knew we wanted them to be lifelong readers. It was a win-win! Thanks for the list. I will tweet it out for others to see!
Asking for more bedtime stories is such a well known procrastination technique!
Molly Bang’s Ten, Nine, Eight is a lovely countdown as a little girl and her daddy prepare for bed.
I don’t know that Goodnight Gorilla quite counts since its about a Gorilla escaping from the zoo, but he is snuggled in nicely between the zookeeper and his wife at the end!
Bob Shea’s Dinosaur vs. Bedtime is another winner. Little Dinosaur roars his way through his activities, but he can’t beat bedtime!
Thank you for your suggestions. Ten, Nine, Eight sounds lovely 🙂
Peace At Last is a massive favourite in this house; we both love it!
Thanks for linking up with the #WeekendBlogHop!
Peace At Last is very high on my top picture books list. It’s also a lovely present for a new baby 🙂
You are right that bedtime can be such a trying experience. I love reading to my daughter as part of her nighttime routine. I haven’t read any of these books, but they sound adorable. Saying hi from the Kid Lit Blog Hop.
Bedtime stories are the best and can help calm what can often be a fraught situation 🙂
This is a lovely blog! Our favourite bedtime story at the moment is the five minutes till bedtime one, with the pirates, it’s ace!
found you on the weekend blog hop and shall defo be checking back for book reviews : ) x
Thank you and thank you for visiting Story Snug! I don’t know five minutes till bedtime, will check it out 🙂
I have to say I haven’t actually read any of these books with my kids, but will be looking in to them!
Thank you for linking up with the #WeekendBlogHop
Laura x x x
You’re welcome Laura, thank you for sharing the post 🙂
Lovely list. We like Ten in the Bed, and Little Man really likes This is Lulu, taking us through her day, ending with bath and bedtime, complete with bedtime story, of course 🙂
Our copy of Ten in the Bed is very battered and well loved! There are so many great bedtime picture books we could have included 🙂
You have two of my favourites here – Maisy Goes Camping and Peace at Last. Both beautiful and fun. My son is a huge Maisy fan actually. I think he likes the vibrancy of the illustrations.
Maisy is fabulous, Lucy Cousin’s illustrations are so appealing to small children 🙂
Great selection, my favourite has to be Peace at Last. Thanks for sharing with #readwithme x
Peace at Last is such a classic, it deals with a timeless problem 🙂
say goodnight to the sleepy animals is my children’s fave. The copy we have is sellotaped together in numerous places 🙂
#readwithme
We love stroking the animals as we read 🙂
what a great selection of bedtime titles. and I think we’ve got a couple more on the shelf here #readwithme
Thank you, there were lots more I could have included. Can’t You Sleep Little Bear? is also a favourite 🙂