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A rather wise book person I once met described certain books as instantly feeling like "the future family heirlooms - passed from generation to generation". "Magical Animals at Bedtime" is one such book, a collected anthology of animal stories from Lou Kuenzler, Sandra Rigby and Andrew Weale with utterly gorgeous illustrations throughout. Like the fabulous Aesop's Fables, or many other collected animal stories, "Magical Animals at Bedtime" collects together short stories that also help a child deal with the issues surrounding them on a daily basis.
Charlotte's particular favourite - the story of a princess and a unicorn - dealt with the subject of kindness and sharing. The mean and rather demanding Princess who is all too used to getting her own way loses her temper and storms off into the forest when her stable boy won't let her ride her favourite horse. Through her silliness, she's soon lost and starts to panic but a beautiful Unicorn is on hand. Guiding her back to safety, the Princess realises how silly she has been and how right the stable boy was to stop her from riding her poorly steed.
Moral tales can be preachy but with each story comes a discussion point at the end to help children understand the story themes.
There are so many brilliantly written tales in this utterly gorgeous book that it is definitely something you and your children will want to return to again and again. Stories that deal with subjects as diverse as shyness, adapting to change, even learning the true value of friendship.
Each child will undoubtedly find a favourite story here, perhaps even one based on their favourite animal (we thoroughly loved the Giraffe story in here too).
As we mentioned at the top of the review, this is the sort of book that you will read to your children perhaps imagining bouncing THEIR children on your knee to read it to them one day too. Wonderful stuff!
"Magical Animals at Bedtime" will be released on 5th September, 2013
Charlotte's best bit: The grumpy and rather demanding princess learning her lesson!
Daddy's favourite bit: A beautiful book that is not only filled with great stories but could well contribute to your child's moral development too. Really lovely book.
(Kindly sent to us for review by Watkins Publishing)