Advertisement

Five brilliant bedtime books that fathers will love reading to their children

Jay Jay Burridge is the author of The World of Supersaurs six-book series - JAR Photo
Jay Jay Burridge is the author of The World of Supersaurs six-book series - JAR Photo

Jay Jay Burridge is a former BBC children’s TV presenter and the author of The World of Supersaurs, a six-book series. The latest, The Stegosorcerer, is now on sale. 

Here he gives his tips on bed time reading for fathers...

 

Reading to my boys at bedtime is a ritual I have grown to love. When they were young the task could feel quite mind numbing as all the books were so basic and repetitive. As they’ve grown up the book choice has expanded and become more interesting for all of us, but there’s still a lot of dross out there. That’s what initially made me turn my Supersaurs concept from artworks of modern day dinosaurs into a series of children’s adventures exploring a world where dinosaurs didn’t die out. I wanted to create something for Cash, 9, and Carter, 7, as well as for me, that would encourage us to read more together and which would ignite our imagination.

The boys are my main source of inspiration and sharing a story at bedtime and seeing how this feeds their own imagination and play, is a wonderful thing. 

Being able to read a book I wrote to my kids is my greatest achievement to date, especially as I have struggled with dyslexia my whole life. At school I was quickly sidelined and given a pencil to draw with as that was all I was good at. Luckily for me it payed off. After graduating from Central Saint Martins College of Art where I studied sculpture (making full size dinosaurs all the way back then) I was picked up by the BBC to take over from Tony Hart to write and present the replacement art TV show for children called Smart.

These days I’m much more comfortable being a children's author and dad who builds dinosaurs. Here are five children’s books we’ve enjoyed over the years...

Encyclopaedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs

Robert Sabuda and Mather Reinhert

Simply the best pop up book in the world. It's loaded with great facts and over 35 fantastically crafted pop ups that put everything else to shame. If you like this then also look out for their two other books in the series, Sharks and Sea Monsters and Mega-Beasts.

It was these books that inspired me to create the free augmented reality apps that compliment each of my Supersaurs books. Exploring a medium which freed me of the limitations of paper folding, I’m able to make my illustrations come alive in many new ways but without losing the wonder of a pop up.

The boys have spent hours exploring these books; discovering something new each time even when they thought they’d seen it all. 

Do Not Enter The Monster Zoo 

Written by Amy Sparks and illustrated by Sara Ogalvie

There are many top quality rhyming stories with beautiful illustrations that we all enjoy reading over and over again – but this sits at the top. There is an effortless charm and flow to both the story and the drawings that settles sleepy children into a happy place.

I read this to the boys when they were small more times than I can count and it never got boring. Every child should have this on their bookshelf. 

Welcome to the World of Mamoko

Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński

A wonderful, wordless picture book where you become the storyteller. The premise is that you have to spot each character from page to page and discover a kaleidoscope of tales that are all interwoven. Every time we look through it we discover something new as well as create our own narration for what we see. It's thoroughly creative.

If you like this there is also Mamoko in the Time of Dragons and The World of Mamoko in the Year 3000, as well as all their other beautiful map books.

The Twits

Written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake

Choosing one of the great master’s books for this list is the hardest task, but for us The Twits gets a laugh every time. One of the best things about having kids is being allowed to revisit all the stories you loved as a child and Roald Dahl allows me this nostalgia. Each and every one of his books is a little piece of magic; it’s amazing to see this being passed on time and time again.

Fantastic Mr Fox comes a very close second but I don’t suppose I’m allowed to get that in as well…

The Twits, by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake, is a time-honoured children's classic - Credit: Quentin Blake
The Twits, by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake, is a time-honoured children's classic Credit: Quentin Blake

The World of Supersaurs: Raptors of Paradise

Written by Jay Jay Burridge and illustrated by Chris West

I would like to take this opportunity to plug my own book, something I'm not afraid to do. This is Book 1 in the adventure series. It establishes the background of the main characters and the over-arching storyline. 

Thirteen-year-old Bea Kingsley is being led on another exotic holiday by her grandmother Bunty Brownlee and family friend Theodore Logan to the islands of Aru. She thinks they are here to see the illusive raptors of paradise but soon finds out this was the last known place her parents were seen before they disappeared 11 years earlier. Asking questions gets them all into trouble with the island’s governor, Christian Hayter, who fronts a sinister black market trade in exotic saur feathers. They don't find all the answers but instead a strange, feral 11-year-old boy called Carter who is being raised by the island's deadliest saurs, and who bears an uncanny family resemblance to Bea's parents. Could this boy actually be her brother? (Book 2: The Stegosorcerer continues where this book ends.)

The Supersaurs books are for my boys and for everyone who was once a child. My hope is that they too are passed down from parent to child and shared and enjoyed for many years to come.