As the 6yr olds asks “Mum, will you read me a story”, the heart beat quickens and the panic attack looms ever closer. As I wait nervously by the bed awaiting the inevitable- the boring bedtime book!!!  It’s not so much that the story has no meaning, the illustrations look like they’ve been dawbed on the book by an escaped slug . It’s the combination of the two, and the fact that the 6yr old is asleep before page 3 and I’m following on soon after. We’ve never got to the middle of the book , let alone the end. I was under the impression that a book should have a beginning a middle and an end. Some of the kids books nowadays seem to have rather too much middle!! 

This bedtime ritual causes all sorts of problems, as no-one else wants to attempt the books. So I end up with the cricked neck from sleeping half on , half off a 3ft single divan.

However one day Auntie Sharon bought us a personalized book. Not any ordinary personalized book with the name and address of one child. This book had the whole family in it- names and faces- yes our faces were put on the book characters bodies. The story was about a trip to the seaside and what a trip it was!!  The text was in really great rhyme and the things they had us doing in the book were hilarious. I mean seeing the old man on a donkey made my day- especially when it
runs off with him!!

That night at bedtime the 6yr old had everyone fighting to read it. Not a miracle- well we couldn’t pay the teenager to read let alone read to his younger sibling- but this night he was first in line.

Now there’s no falling asleep  , the problem we have now is that the 6yr old wants to read it again- and again- and again …….

Is there a moral to this story- if you want to encourage a love of books, which will lead to a love of reading- get a book that’s fun and interesting and includes the whole family.