Are you struggling to help your child wind down before bedtime?
Bedtime can be tricky for adults, let alone little ones! Like some of us, most children have LOADS of energy right before sleepy time and relaxing into sleep is no easy feat.
We’ve carefully selected a collection of children's bedtime stories books that are perfect to read and to set the tone for a good night’s sleep. From Slow Down, a selection of nature stories to calm little readers down, to the ever popular 10 Minutes to Bedtime, there's a book for every little reader (and sleeper)!
Whether your child zooms around the room or bounces off walls in pre-bedtime excitement, these books will calm down your child for a calmer, quieter bedtime.
Georgina Atwell
Toppsta
2025-02-22
2022-11-15
Picture books to help kids calm down and get ready for bed
Slow Down: Bring Calm to a Busy World with 50 Nature Stories
All around us, nature is turning, growing...and working. Every day, hour by hour, magical transformations happen right in front of you. But it's not always easy to see them... Discover 50 nature stories, paused just long enough for you to watch them unfold. Then go outside and explore... and see what you find when you take the time to slow down.
The latest Elmer story from master picture book maker, David McKee - winner of the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement award, and the 2020 British Book Awards Nibbies Illustrator of the Year.
It's bedtime, and Elmer's looking after two baby elephants. But how will he get them to sleep? A good walk will do it, Elmer thinks. But as they walk past their friends, everyone in the jungle seems to think he should tell them a bedtime story, and they each have their own favourites. What's yours?
Bedtime isn't bedtime without your favourite bear - and Tom's bear is on his way! Follow Bear on his adventures as he finds his way back to Tom, from cycling through the jungle with a tiger to hitching a lift with a sheep on a jeep.
This pop-up paperback book features a laugh-out-loud text full of witty rhymes and silly scenarios from Ian Whybrow, and illustrations by Axel Scheffler, illustrator of The Gruffalo , that are bursting with funny details, The Bedtime Bear is a bedtime book with a difference. Best of all, children can join in the fun with flaps to lift, wheels to turn, tabs to pull and pop-up surprises on every page!
The perfect bedtime book to calm your own sleepy unicorns!
Full of magic, sparkle and rainbows (and one naughty unicorn), little readers will love this calming tale before bed.
It's bedtime, but one lively little unicorn can't quite settle down and go to sleep! As her dad counts down the minutes to bed, what mischief can she get up to?
Favourite fairy tales are turned upside down in this laugh-out-loud bedtime story, where everyone wants to be the hero.
Everyone knows that the very last story before bed is the best story of all, but what if ALL the fairy tale characters want part of the action?! It's chaos! Cinderella hijacks the story of The Three Little Pigs, adamant that her story is the best, then Little Red Riding Hood jumps in, insisting that her story is better because it's full of danger. And then, uh-oh, the Big Bad Wolf turns up too! But then disaster strikes - the reader is still awake and needs a story! With some much-needed teamwork, the characters make up a story together and one with enough funniness, romance, danger AND cake (obviously) to keep everyone happy.
A reinvented fairy tale to make the whole family laugh, with wonderfully witty illustrations and a peep-through hole in the cover!
.webp)
 copy.jpg)
.jpg)
