Monday, September 6, 2010

Bedtime Stories

While we love ourselves some good picture books and visit the library on a regular basis, I began getting really bored with the same old same old for our bedtime stories.  Miss Five loves any sort of reading or stories so I thought I'd try her out on chapter books - one chapter each night.  We started with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and it was a great success - she couldn't wait to hear what would happen next and didn't really seem to mind that the pictures (by Quentin Blake) where not colour or on every page like her picture books.  Since then we've read a raft of chapter books, some more successful than others.

Just lately Miss Five discovered the big pile of books at her grandparent's house that used to belong to me and begged to bring some home for bedtime stories.  I chose a few of the ones I hoped would be more at her level and here is what we are reading at the moment...we only have two chapters left to go!


Really old books are just the best.  This one is made even more special by having a number of colour plates in it.
Here are two - arn't they lovely?



I remember adoring this book when I was younger and I'm pleased to say that Miss Five quite likes it too.  She even told me that she and her frinds now play "Katy" at school!

 I will be sure to show you what we are reading next when we get to it.  Did you have any favourite chapter books when you were younger (or even now!?)  I had heaps!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog and entering my giveaway! A big belated Happy Birthday too!
    The Munchkin (3 1/2) and I read chapter books every night and we love it. She tells me she loves the sound of my voice when I read and I think it lulls her into sleep. "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" was deemed too exciting to go to sleep to, "Milly Molly Mandy" is her all time favourite and as each story is only a chapter long it works well. Enid Blyton books are also quite popular here and I loved them when I was young too. :)
    PS. Coincidentally I actually picked up a copy of "What Katy Did" at an Oppie today but it was a fairly average paperback edition so I thought I would hold out for a better one, your is beautiful!

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  2. The illustrations are simply gorgeous.
    Was surrounded by books when I was little and all were favourites, I did love The Water Babies and My Rupert books. I think my Sister scored "Water Babies" Jealous!! But I have several of the Rupert ones. I vaguely remember one we had at school called something like Epaminones, Oh I loved those stories! Thank you for visiting my blog.

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  3. I've just found you through a comment you left on my blog post about apples. Your posts on lunchboxes are wonderful - I wish you were packing my lunch everyday!

    I'm just about to start re-reading my Mum's old copy of Anne of Green Gables for the book club over at Meet Me At Mikes. I can't remember whether or not it has illustrations or not - will have to check (I do hope so).

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  4. Thanks everyone for your comments. I shall have to keep an eye out for Milly Molly Mandy and The Water Babies, both would be delightful, I'm sure. We definately love us some Enid Blyton - The Wishing Chair Series, The Faraway Tree Series and the Amelia Jane Series. I remember seeing Rubert comic strips in the newspaper when I was young and then being totally amazed that a primary school friend had a little brother called Rupert! And I'm doing the Meet Me At Mikes book club thing too - I havn't read Anne Of Green Gables for years and years so I hope it is as good as I remember it being.

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  5. I loved that book when I was a child - what a lovely edition you have! It is wonderful to read chapter books to your kids and to instill a love of reading. Unfortunately my kids didn't really appreciate my childhood fiction favourites - instead we mainly read all the series written by Emily Rodda.

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  6. Oh I had that when I was little. I wonder if my Mum still has it? Hmmmm, I actually have in my book case Amelia Jane which I loved as a kid also. I bought the set of The Famous Five which I started reading to my boys, but they didn't get into them, despite my reading to them each night and not giving them a choice (lol, mean mumma!)
    I was tempted to join Pip's reading club, but I really need to get this study out of the way, and so I am being a good girl and will play later. I love Anne Shirley. Hmmmm I might just have to pull out these books again to read to my boys.

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