Best bedtime books for babies

You can’t go wrong with a Sandra Boynton board book. Here, she imagines a boat full of friendly animals going about their bedtime routines (gotta brush those teeth!) before rocking gently to sleep.

Another Boynton favorite turns bedtime into a party complete with song and dance moves. But don’t worry, the after-party takes place in dreamland.

In this bedtime book, a tricky gorilla steals the zookeeper’s keys and lets all the animals out of their cages. When the zookeeper’s wife discovers the animals napping in her bedroom, she gently leads them home so they can all get a good night’s sleep.

The reader is entrusted with a very important and difficult job—don’t let the pigeon stay up late! The crafty pigeon will use every excuse and stall tactic, so it won’t be easy, but it will be funny.

Patient Mr. Panda reminds his animal friends to follow the steps of their bedtime routines, like taking a bath and brushing teeth. Sloth and skunk make excuses, but cheerful Lemur sticks to the plan. (Let’s all be like Lemur.)

What better way is there to say goodnight than with tons of kisses? Count down from “10 little kisses on teeny tiny toes” and learn body parts and numbers along the way with this sweet bedtime book.

Are you more of a hugger? This day in-the-life of a busy bunny is chock full of hug breaks, especially at bedtime!

Cement mixers and crane trucks have bedtimes too in this popular bedtime book about things that go.

Everyone’s favorite toddler tiger wants to play, but it’s time for bed. Dad gently moves Daniel through bath, teeth, PJ’s, story and a song until he’s too sleepy to protest anymore.

Your little one falls asleep to the sound of your loving affirmations, like “I love you like mice love cheese! I love you like vines love trees!” in this bedtime book for babies.

A little owl resists bedtime, claiming he’s not remotely tired—despite all evidence to the contrary. Sound like anyone you know?

A little boy imagines himself as a robot powering down at bedtime. It’s hard to stop jumping and beeping, but by “turning off” each body part, he can finally achieve sleep.

For littles with the wiggles, learning these gentle and poetically expressed yoga poses is a great way to settle in for bed.

A hilarious twist on the traditional bedtime story has our child narrator sending her exhausted and haggard looking parents to bed, which requires taking away their computers, magazines, TV and cell phones. “Remain calm. Do not negotiate,” she advises. Sounds familiar.

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15 Of The BEST Baby and Toddler Bedtime Books To End Your Day With

I get asked ALL the time for my best baby and toddler bedtime book recommendations from my busy mom friends. Everybody knows that one of my favorite times of the day is the very last part of our day and the best part of our bedtime routine — reading books together!

From the beginning I have been steadfast in my mission to curate a wonderful collection of books to read at bedtime with Riley to start this habit of reading before bed because it’s how *I* always like to end my day and I just really cherish those moments before bed after the chaos of a busy day.

Even when she was still a newborn I always read her one book before she went to sleep (ha — if you can call what she did sleep during those days) and then we worked our way up to more.

It’s been at a steady 5 books a night since about 10 months and she’s 2.5 years old now and that’s still about what we read — though it takes even LONGER now because the books are far longer. However, reading is also my FAVORITE thing so I don’t mind it being a huge chunk of our nightly routine or taking longer.

Anyways, I love talking about our favorite bedtime books since it’s my favorite part of the day and it’s helped us to establish a calming, easy bedtime routine.

Can I promise you that your baby will sleep better? Nah. But I genuinely think our bedtime routine at least helped her with the GOING to sleep part and just made for such a lovely end to the day. Even when someone else did bedtime — she KNEW what to expect….and would yell at grandma when she tried to skip it.

It’s been fun watching Riley anticipate the reading portion of the bedtime routine since she was about 6 months old. She used to get SO mad when it was over as a baby and as a toddler she’s always still endlessly excited for books and will try to ask for ONE MORE BOOK.

I’ll get to the books to read with your baby or toddler first but at the end let’s talk tips and tricks about adding books into your bedtime routine!

[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which means that if you click on a link and purchase something I’ve talked about or recommended, I’ll receive a very small percentage of the sale. Please see my disclosure policy for more info.

Before we get into the actual list of books to read at bedtime with your baby or toddler, let’s talk about why it’s important and how to add it to your nighttime routine! Maybe you think “great! One more thing to add to to the chaos of bed!” That’s what we are trying to avoid! It’s easy and once you make it a habit it will be so second nature.

Why reading to your baby/toddler before bed is so important?

There are so many important reasons/benefits to reading to your child in general that are backed by science and that obviously factor into why it is so important for reading to be part of your bedtime ritual as well as your daily life.  All of those reasons apply here!

But some of the reasons I’ve found it is so important for both Riley AND me as a parent are just based on how it makes us feel (though science probably TOTALLY could back it all up):

1. Connection & Cuddles: Whether she sits on my lap or cuddles up next to me, it soothes me even on the most stressful of days and I know it does the same for her. I love being intentional about connecting at the end of our day — especially on days where I feel like I’ve been distracted or maybe we had a really hard day. I love her going to bed on a good note doing something we both enjoy so much. I always feel such a strong bond no matter how much of a crap mom I felt like that day for whatever reason.

2. It’s such a calming way to wind down: I can’t imagine just abruptly ending our day without having some buffer time to really wind down. I find that, for whatever reason, if we tried to skip the book portion and just do bath/jammies/teeth that she is always a bit more hyper going down. I like that she is adaptable enough if we come home super late that she’s okay with skipping books but I like that we have that extra mellowing out time. Sure, sometimes we get silly now when we read now that she’s a toddler but overall it’s such a good wind-down activity.

3. It’s built-in reading time: For as much time as Riley and I spend reading outside of bedtime reading, there are some days when we are just so busy and active that we don’t read ANY books until that time. It’s important to read daily so I love knowing that no matter how the day goes — we have that. We read, right now, 5 books every night which is 1,825 books a year. I love knowing that I’m setting aside that time and she expects it so it keeps me accountable.

How To Add Reading Books To Your Little One’s Bedtime Routine + General Tips

Decide what you want your general bedtime to routine to look like if you don’t already have one. That’s the most important step is to making a bedtime routine that works for YOUR family and what you can conceivably do. Here are some examples from what our various routines looked like as a baby and toddler:

As a toddler: Bath (every other day at this point), teeth, brush hair, jammies, sleep sack, jumps into our bed and read 5 books, sip of water, kisses the dog, kisses us and then off to bed with a song and kiss.

We have always allotted around 30 minutes for ours because that works for us. As a baby the bottle part took the longest time, bath was shorter and the board books we read were way shorter. Now as a toddler bath and books are both longer but still equal around 30 minutes because we don’t have the bottle obviously.

Once you get your general routine down:

Decide WHEN you want the book portion of your bedtime ritual. We liked for it to be last thing we do but maybe it works better for you to do books first and bath/jammies last because THAT soothes them the most.

Decide how many books/how long you want to read for. Reading is one of my greatest passions so for me I will always have reading our books be a really long portion of our bedtime routine. We also only have one kid so we aren’t juggling multiple bedtimes. Maybe you do one book at night, maybe you do 5. Whatever works for your family and is reasonable FOR YOU. We are less busy these days so we can have a longer allotted time for it.

Decide on where you are going to read. Since we moved to our house we all pile into our bed and then she goes to her room to sleep. Maybe the transition is easier for you to read in your child’s room.

Start small & adapt: If it’s new, start small. See how long it takes. Make adjustments. BUT STICK WITH IT. I promise it will get easier to carve out the time once you just do it. We start our bedtime routine earlier to allot for all that reading time. It should be soothing — not a stressor — so only do what helps your night flow better. ALSO, as they get older your routine will change a little and adapt. When we read longer books I decrease the amount we are reading.

Mix it up: I try to add a mix of longer and shorter books for attention sake. I also always have a favorite book or two in the mix each time and then add in some that we don’t read as often or library books we are trying out since I’m ALWAYS looking for new books to read at bedtime. I also have a weekly rotation of about 8 books and we mix and match it up every night for a week and then I start the week with a new selection.

Know what books work: Riley doesn’t get too wound up when we read silly or fun books but your kid might need soothing, calming books at bed to keep the mood low key. When she was a baby and started getting her preferences, she only wanted her FAVORITE books so I just stuck to those until she seemed more open to other ones or she would cry. 

If it’s becoming a fight, figure out why: Maybe they are too tired that night, maybe they don’t like the book you are reading, maybe they want to flip through a book themselves while you read (now, at 2, Riley straights up “reads outloud” her book while I’m reading a book and pays attention to both LET ME TELL YOU god forbid I skip a page), maybe they want to pick out the books, maybe they want the SAME book read 5 times instead of the 4 different ones. THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT HAVE CAUSED PROBLEMS FOR US but I was able to figure out that’s why she was tantrum-ing or resisting and figured out how we can solve it. I pick my battles.

Books To Read To Baby At Bedtime

When I started picking bedtime books for baby Riley I tended to pick short ones considering her attention span and I guess I always picked ones that had some sort of sleep/bedtime element because perhaps I wanted to send out all the good sleep vibes to the universe.

I loved these short little bedtime board books and how perfectly they fit into our routine and how much she loved them. Plus it was nice for her to start understanding the concept of “going to bed” and just knowing how it fits in our day and what to expect.

These were by far our favorite bedtime books for during the newborn to 12 month range:

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Oh man does she loves this one and I do too! It goes through baby’s day and then ends with baby taking a bath and going to bed! Very simple story that helps them relate to the various things of their day and bold, attention-grabbing colors! It was so fun when she started saying the action words in the book. One of my favorite bedtime books for newborns even…I had started reading this to her REALLY early.

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I think this author’s books are great and the illustrations are darling always! A great simple book about getting ready for bed for babies and toddlers!

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A short, wonderfully illustrated book about how different animals go to sleep. We got this from the library a bunch when she was a baby and I just recently got it out when she turned 2 and it made it even more fun to talk about the different animals and how they sleep.

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We are big Sandra Boynton fans here — as I’m sure everyone with little ones is! These board books are perfect length for babies and these book is all about these animals getting ready for bed. These silly animals even exercise before bed?? As she got older it was fun to talk about how silly the animals were.

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This is an all time favorite snuggly bed book for us and Riley always giggles during when it comes out. A very cute and snuggly bedtime book for baby! Edited to add: we still read this sometimes at 2 and she knows it by heart, AND BLESS HER SOUL, she does all the kisses to me and it melts my heart.

Related: The Most Heartwarming Picture Books (That Make This Mama Cry EVERY TIME)

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I love this sweet, short little book and it was a favorite of my husband’s to read to Riley before she went to sleep. It’s a sweet little counting story of all the little hugs a baby gets from her daddy in a day and ends with goodnight hugs. Also I am pretty sure that she learned how to identify her numbers around her 2nd birthday somehow thanks to this book and Mommy Hugs below.

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Same concept as above — different things Mommy and baby do during the day leading up to bedtime hugs! This pair of books has been a real hit for Riley!

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As you can see, Sandra Boynton is essential to our bedtime routine when it comes to the reading portion. Putting those jammies on is the focus of this bedtime book! While she might fight putting her pajamas on, she loves watching the animals get their pjs on!

This book has just gotten better with age — it’s been such a fun read for her as a toddler and we do our little pajama time shimmy and I love hearing her say “iiiiiiiit’s pajama time”

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A classic bedtime book for kids! This has been a longtime favorite bedtime reading choice from baby to toddlerhood.

You May Also Like: Best Book Subscription Books For Little Kids

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This one is so sweet and I love the flow of the rhyming as the little polar bear baby sets off on some adventures. Beautiful illustrations too! I started reading this one to her around 1.5 years old and she really took to it immediately!

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I love so many of Mem Fox’s books and this one is a must-have bedtime story! It’s a classic and Riley grew to love it even more the older she’s gotten. Love the rhythm of this one — very soothing for bedtime.

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A really cute lift-the-flap bedtime book — very snuggly and comforting with its rhythm and adorable illustrations.

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This is part of the Global Babies books which Riley loved as a baby and through early toddlerhood. From early on she loved looking at the faces of the babies. No real story just shows bedtime around the world.

Favorite Toddler Bedtime Books

Some of these we totally read when she was an older baby but I felt like she really loved them/understood them as a toddler.

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We started reading this one as a baby but she LOVES it even more as a toddler. Adorable bedtime story about where all the animals sleep! It’s seriously so sweet. Around 18 months Riley loved pointing out all the animals and making the sounds of the ones she knew!

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This book is a fun bedtime story & a great lift-the-flap book! We see some sleepy animals (and a child at the end) and when you lift the flap to see each yawn. Super cute!

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Love this book! Catchy and cute rhyming book all about bedtime that totally reinforces exactly what your kid is doing before bed. One of our favorite board books about bed!

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Another Sandra Boynton but maybe you didn’t know she had a new one out! The publisher kindly sent us a copy of this book to enjoy and it’s SO nice to have another new and fun Boynton bedtime read for us! It’s SO silly and I think it’s the perfect funny bedtime book for toddlers! Love giggling in bed reading this one with her.

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This one is part of a series and this one is a bedtime themed book! It’s a bedtime story about a little boy who is NOT ready for bed yet and each page/flap will tell you one reason why he’s not — all sorts of things in his bedtime routine that he needs to do with his stuffed animals. Great for the bedtime routine!

Related: Best Books For 1 Year Olds

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I don’t envy mama sheep! These little sheepies don’t want to sleep — they want to play longer, they want something to drink, they want cuddles.

Parents will smile at this relatable little story of the mama sheep trying to corral these sheep to sleep and toddlers will LOVE saying “go to sleeeeeeeeep sheeeeep” along with you.

One of my favorite bedtime books for a 1 year old especially as that’s when Riley really got into it & it complemented stuff she was learning. 

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This book is a little longer than the ones above and as a baby I’d get through a couple pages and she would shut the book. So I took it out of our rotation and added it back in around 20 months and she likes it SO MUCH. There is a “sooooo slowwwww” refrain that happens periodically when talking about the sloths that is her favorite part to say with me.

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I am OBSESSED with the Pete the Cat books though if I’m being honest this one is not one of my favorites out of all of them. It’s literally Pete the Cat just singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but Riley has loved it since she was a baby and it’s a good one in the bedtime book arsenal. Though HIGHLY recommend the other Pete the Cat books more in general.

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I know, I know. You don’t need this song in your head BUT it’s a toddler favorite. This book only came out when she was a toddler but I bet she would have loved the familiar baby shark tune as a baby. Basically just Baby Shark but with a bedtime twist!

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I love the original Little Blue Truck so we were excited to receive, thanks to the publisher, a copy of this for review. If you are looking for a little more of a longer but still simple book with a story for bed, definitely check this one out. Little Blue Truck and friends weather a storm together and then it’s off to bed! One of our new favorite bedtime books for 2 year old Riley! 

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I hope these bedtime story book recommendations, as well tips & tricks, will be helpful for you with your baby, 1 year old or 2 year old through the years.

So…TELL ME…what are some great bedtime books for infants and toddlers that you and your little one enjoy??? I’m always looking to add some more. And I would definitely take any great bedtime book recommendations for when she gets a little older too! I imagine we will be reading all sorts of things and not just exclusively “bedtime” books but I like to throw in the bedtime themed books for sure.

PIN THESE BEDTIME BOOKS TO READ WITH YOUR CHILD:

P.S. Check out these other picture book recomendations:

• Black and White Books For Newborns and Babies
• Christmas books to read with baby
• Best book subscriptions for kids

Top 10 children's books for falling asleep

Getting a child to fall asleep quickly and sweetly is sometimes not an easy task. And here rituals in general and reading books at night in particular come to the aid of moms and dads. But what to choose from the variety of books that will not excite the child's imagination, but, on the contrary, will help him calm down and fall asleep. We choose from the best!

Why are you not sleeping?

M. Wadell

In 2013, The Times (London) newspaper called this book "the most perfect children's picture book ever written." This book, which has already become a classic of "sleep" books, is itself like the sweetest lullaby. The kind and touching story of the relationship between an adult and a child is beautifully illustrated by watercolor drawings by the artist Barbara Firth, for which she received the Kate Greenway Medal, the UK's most prestigious award for illustrators.

Lullaby book

A. Usachev

The verses from the "Lullaby Book" are not only "sleeping", but also just good. Deeply lyrical, setting in a single - glorious way, adults and children, they are liked by both, touching hearts with sincerity and kindness and a little sadness.

Rabbit (elephant) who wants to sleep

Karl-Johan Forssen Erlin

This is a series of two books designed solely to help young children fall asleep. The author of the book is a Swedish psychologist, and in this book he uses special psychological techniques aimed at relaxing the mind. In both stories, the protagonist goes through a magical sleepy forest to his bed. Along the way, he meets various heroes who help him fall asleep. Look, don't fall asleep yourself while you read.

Construction, baiushki-bayu

Rinker Dusky

An absolutely brilliant book. It is not for nothing that she has been in the States for almost three years now - the undisputed leader in sales. Why is this book good? And here are the cars, And the game, and the backfills, and very nice illustrations. Such a cocktail cannot but fall in love with the smallest listeners.

A wonderful train rushes to sleep

Rinker Dusky

Wonderful verses about the locomotive of dreams. Polar bears, monkeys and turtles, elephants and giraffes help load his wagons with unusual cargo, and then go to sleep on it.

Sleepy Tales

Gurina, Shkurina, Slavitsky

This book contains special psychological tales of modern authors that will help parents put their child to sleep without tears and whims.
Quiet, meditative stories will calm the most angry child. And fairy tales in which the main characters, like a baby, refuse to sleep, will teach that everything has its time, and that sleep can be very pleasant and interesting.

Tales of a thousand and one nights. golden tales

It is difficult to say what attracts more in "Tales of a Thousand and One Nights" - vivid pictures of the life of the Arab East, stories about the valiant heroes of Baghdad and Cairo, or fascinating descriptions of desert lands and luxurious palaces.
This book will open before the child a new world, wonderful and unique. He will introduce him to Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and other characters of the fascinating and instructive "Tales of a Thousand and One Nights", of which there are more than 50 in this book.

While you are sleeping…

John Butler

The book tells about what different animals do while the baby is sleeping. Perfect for ages 1-2. Mom will love the illustrations for the book, and the child will love the numbers on each page. Good value for money.

A dream walks along the canopy ... Lullabies

Firstly, this is a collection of rare, really old lullabies. Secondly, nice coated paper. And, thirdly, quite interesting, diverse illustrations made by Vasnetsova Elizaveta Yurievna, daughter of the People's Artist of the RSFSR Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov. It is very characteristic of her desire to generously decorate the book, to make it elegant and attractive, kind and sincere. The drawing style of Elizaveta Yuryevna Vasnetsova is especially organically combined with the cherished word of the Russian lullaby, the maternal word of love and affection addressed to a little person who has just come into the world.

Ts-ts-ts ... Sleepy book

Il Sung Na

Who sleeps is the question. Birds on the branches sleep - and do not fall. Fish in the water see dreams - and do not drown. And giraffes, that's funny, they sleep right upright. And how they just do not fall down in a dream! Everyone sleeps the way they can, and everyone's dreams are different. What do animals and birds dream about at night? Let's listen! The translation and adaptation of the text was made by the famous translator and author of books for children and adults Marina Aromshtam. And the author and illustrator Il Sung Na was awarded in the prestigious British Book Design and Production Awards in the section "Children's Book", in the same year he was nominated for the competition of young British illustrators Best New Illustrator Awards.

What fairy tales to read to a child at bedtime?

Not every, even the most talented children's work is suitable for reading before bedtime. What is a bedtime story? First of all, this is a gentle, lulling wish good night. So, it should be pacifying and not too full of events that excite the imagination. If you read something dynamic, the risk of distracting the child from sleep is very high. Pictures in a bedtime story should also be calm and gentle.

The next desired quality of an evening story is its kindness. In a comfortable, sincere atmosphere that such a fairy tale creates, it is easier for the baby to relax and fall asleep. Decreases the likelihood of having a bad dream. After a good fairy tale, dreams will be magical.

Pay attention to the length of the story you are planning to read. On average, kids under three years old can listen with interest and look at pictures in a book for up to 10 minutes, children three to five years old - about 15-20 minutes. Although, of course, all children are different, and it is worth focusing on the needs of your child.

And a few more tips about reading books at night:

• Read with pleasure, not because you "have to".
• Do not force your child to listen to the reading if he does not want to.
• Reading for a child is worth both parents - both mom and dad. This prevents "distortions" in the relationship of the child with loved ones.
• Read quietly, slowly, calmly, but expressively. Don't forget that your voice creates moods, thoughts and images in your baby's head.

Note: Listening to audiobooks is not a substitute for live, full book reading by mom or dad.

Best Bedtime Reading Books for Kids

Contents

1. Sleepy Selection: 10 Bedtime Books for Kids
2. Lama Red Pajamas
3. Sleep, Dragon, bye-bye!
4. When the heels fall asleep
5. Where does sleep wander?
6. Good night
7. Construction site, bayushki
8. Sleepy Tales
9. A rabbit that wants to sleep. Fairy tale to help parents
10. Little fairy can't sleep
11. I don't want to sleep! A Tale for Little Owls
12. More Bedtime Reading Books for Kids
13. Useful Links

The Best Bedtime Books for Kids: Soothing Books to Read at Night Before Bed to Help Your Baby Sleep.

Not all children fall asleep equally . There are mothers who do not know what problems with getting to sleep are: tired - fell asleep. But still, most babies fall asleep with difficulty.

Form the “correct” sleep associations , come up with your own sleep ritual — a regular routine before going to sleep. For example: bathing, feeding, turning off the lights together, lullabies, sleep books, putting toys to bed, saying goodbye to loved ones and various objects. If you see signs of fatigue, so as not to “interrupt sleep” and not cause overexcitation, the ritual can be neglected.