Jo Frost picks her favourite bedtime books

Published on: 23 April 2017 Author: Jo Frost

Our Bath, Book, Bed parenting expert Jo Frost knows how important a bedtime story is - because she used to love them when she was a child. Now she's revealing her favourites in the hopes that your family will fall for them too...

When I was a little girl, libraries were under no threat of being shut down and we'd certainly not arrived into the era of ebooks. Public libraries, mobile libraries and bookshops were places you would lose yourself in for several hours.

I remember loving the books ranging from shelf to shelf, displayed like wallpaper covering the entire room, and I also liked the tiny little cushions on seats and tables where you could flick through books, discover different stories and be read to by your parents.

It felt like such a privilege to walk to the library with my brother and collect our six book tokens, each with our name on them, and I remember how every single one would be used wisely. It is probably where I learnt my elimination skills…

I don't remember all the books I read - if I'm honest, I struggle to remember great books I read now! But what I do remember is how books make me feel and how I felt when books were being read to me, whether that was at home or at school.

My parents tell me I was a born storyteller and share fond memories of collecting me from nursery to find me happily telling all the other little children make-believe stories.

And now I find myself sharing stories yet again - real-life stories of families who have real-life challenges and how with my expertise I can help to make their lives better. So today I want to share a list of some of the books I do remember enjoying - I hope you and your children will love them too.

Jo's favourite bedtime books list

1. Griffin Pirate Stories: Roderick the Red, Gregory the Green and Benjamin the Blue Pirate by Sheila K. McCullagh
2. When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne
3. Treasury of Fairytales - Poetry
4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
5. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
6. The Famous Five books by Enid Blyton
7. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
8. The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
9. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
10. The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann
11. Beatrix Potter's books
12. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
13. Ladybird Books
14. The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
15. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
16. The Mr. Men books by Roger Hargreaves
17. The Walt Disney Collection
18. The Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond
19. The Topsy and Tim books
20. Noddy and Big-Ears in Toyland by Enid Blyton

What are your favourite bedtime books? Let us know by messaging us on Twitter @BookTrust and using the hashtag #BathBookBed.