Our Favorite Children’s Books for Your Next Bedtime Story

As a child, the stories you were told were probably your greatest treasures. You heard magical tales filled with adventure and fantasy about time-travel machines in trees, detective children or even talking animals. With your active imagination, anything was possible.

Children’s stories are full of wonder to inspire and encourage children to use the power of their imagination. According to The Wall Street Journal, a child’s imagine is so valuable because it is “necessary for learning about people and events we don’t directly experience, such as history or events on the other side of the world. For young kids, it allows them to ponder the future, such as what they want to do when they grow up.”

So, to help cultivate your children’s young minds, here are five stories you can pass down:

1 “Magic Tree House” series by Mary Pope Osborne

This New York Times bestseller contains over 50 books, all of which are centered on Jack and Annie’s time travel adventures to important moments in history, to exciting places around the world and magical moments away from their homes. The two children are sent all around the world on a mission to achieve specific goals. According to the Magic Tree House website, the series began 1992 with “Dinosaurs Before Dark,” where Jack and Annie were catapulted into prehistoric times. Since then, they’ve gone to various places around the world and have used research books, riddles, and codes to complete their missions

2 “Junie B. Jones” series by Barbara Park

This exciting series starts with “almost six year old” Junie B. Jones and her kindergarten adventures. According to The New York Times, Junie is a “6-year-old dispenser of abundant opinions, Runyonesque wise cracks and dubious syntax.” The series follows Junie’s endearing and dorky personality that children her age can relate to. As Common Sense Media writes, “[Junie] is funny, strong-willed and prone to misunderstandings and mishaps.”

3 “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster

This children’s novel is full of illustrations, telling the fantastical story of Milo, a bored young boy, who receives a magic tollbooth. Milo gets in his toy car and drives through the tollbooth and finds himself in Lands Beyond, a magical place with regions called “Wisdom” and the “Doldrums.” In this place, he encounters people like the Mathmagician who explains the importance of numbers and Dr. Dischord who is passionate about different sounds! At the end of the day, after completing his mission and safely making it back from Lands Beyond, Milo finds out that the weeks he spent in that land only translated to a couple hours in his normal reality.

4 “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak

According to Children’s Book Guide, this story “speaks to the heart of every child, and with its original drawings and its [simplistically brilliant] wording, there are few book that are is equal.” Maurice Sendak tells the story of a little boy, Max, whose room turns into a jungle with “an ocean tumbling by and a boat made just for him.” He reaches a land with monsters that try scaring Max, but he instead becomes their king. This story is a tale of a little boy who “indulges in his wild side” but is then called back home “by the promise of parental love, shown in the form of ‘a supper that is still hot.’” It’s touching, adventurous and just the right amount of fun for your child.

5 “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exup ry

This classic story starts with an innocently beautiful drawing of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant, something that “the grown-ups” were not able to understand. After setting the boundary between the child and adult imagination, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry then tells a story of an aviator who crashes and tires to fix his airplane in the middle of the Sahara desert. During this time, he meets The Little Prince who comes from asteroid B-612 where he left behind three volcanoes and a rose. Before meeting the aviator, the Little Prince comes across a series of odd people: a king, a conceited man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter and a geographer. This story is full of touching lessons about wisdom, responsibility and joy.

These children’s books provide a variety of wonderful lessons about imagination, hope and love. It teaches children the joy in seeking out adventure and the importance in learning from their mistakes. So, the next time you want to read your child a book, try picking up one of these books!