We’ve got into a nightly tradition where every night we read some fun books first – books with pictures and flaps, textures etc. Then we get him into his sleep sack and I read him (and my wife) a few pages of a more story-heavy book. At the moment we’re working through Beatrix Potter but we’re not massive fans although we like how whimsy they are.
A fellow dad I know is currently reading LOTR to his baby and I figured while he’s young enough to just enjoy the sound of my voice we’d read some classics to him too but perhaps something a little easier going.
We’re going to start with Alice in Wonderland and other suggestions would be great!
by bacon_cake
8 Comments
How about [The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a3b040d3-c0a1-4bd0-a498-db7f3f4d058e) by Alex Bell?
The Princess Bride has a ton of whimsy and feels like the perfect nighttime reading ritual. It’s basically a fairytale for adults.
If you like LOTR, The Hobbit would be good and much more enjoyable.
My siblings did Harry Potter. My parents used to read us Narnia. They also just read us books they liked. I would think any YA book would be good. Percy Jackson, Maze Runner or Hunger Games.
Retellings of Fairy tales are in now. I don’t personally know many, but I enjoyed the Fairy Tale Detectives: Sisters Grimm.
We read all the Winnie the Pooh stories and poems when mine were babies and now as mostly adults they still quote them. We also enjoyed the Narnia books as a family.
The Roald Dahl Magical Gift set contains “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “ Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and “James and the Giant Peach.” We had this set (and still have it) and have gifted it to friends who enjoyed reading them with their kids. (Illustrated by Quentin Blake) also, check out the illustrated version of “The Hobbit.” The illustrations aren’t great, but it does have them.
Edit: to correct autocorrect
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Look at the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K LeGuin. There’s a beautiful complete illustrated addition out there that I would recommend. Beautiful and simple prose and fun but simple storytelling.
I also loved Redwall and Magic Treehouse when I was a kid.
I feel you on the Beatrix Potter, especially Mrs TiggyWinkle (wow so boring) and that one with the wrapping the cat in the pastry (scarred me for life). A little known one of them though is The Tale of Ginger and Pickles. If you haven’t got that one, find it, it’s about 100x better than the rest. Dog and cat open village shop together and royally suck at it, it’s legit pretty funny.