Tuck-Me-In Tales

Selected as Outstanding by the Parent Council Best Books for Bedtime

Around the world each night, parents tell stories to children as they put them to bed. Margaret Read MacDonald―a folklorist, storyteller, and children's librarian―uses bedtime tales in the daytime to end her story hours on a calm note. Here she includes five of her favorite folktales from around the world.

“Chin Chin Kobokama” tells the story of a young Japanese girl who overcomes her fear of the dark―and learns there are good reasons to clean up her room. “Snow Bunting's Lullaby,” a lovely Siberian tale, shows the lengths to which Papa and Mama Bunting must go to protect their children―and get them to sleep. A South American tale explains the movement of the sun and moon. And “Kanji-Jo, the Nestling,” a lively Liberian tale, shows, as so many folk stories do, that there's no place like home. In elegant, finely detailed watercolors, artist Yvonne Davis joins MacDonald in guiding the reader on a bedtime trip around the world.