Pre-dinner story time

Jun 19, 2021 | Blog

This evening, I was about to start making dinner, I got a Facetime call from my 4 year old nephew. He was wanting a story, and this is something I’m always happy to do (my nephews know that I’ll drop just about anything to read them stories).

The first story requested was The Monster at the end of this Book starring Grover. My nephew explained that they only had a funny video on Mummy’s phone so I had to read it to him! (I have been reliably informed they do have a copy of the book, but my nephew seems to prefer my copy, at least tonight!)

When I was looking through the bookshelf to find the book, I pulled out The Story of the Mole who knew it was None of his Business by Werner Holzwarth & Wolf Erlbruch. This is a book I bought for my kids when they were going through their poo-book phase. I can’t remember if I ever shared it with my 4yo nephew, although I’m pretty sure I did read it to his older brothers when they were his age. My nephew thought it was very funny and he wanted to count the little poo pellets from some of the animals!

Two books weren’t enough, so it was back to my bookshelf for some more books.

Book three was The Box Cars by Robert Vescio and Cara King. My nephew enjoyed the story, insisting that Liam was the one with dark hair and Kai had blonde hair, no matter what the illustrations show. Then told me that he had never made box cars and thought they would be boring! (boring is his latest favourite word)

Book four was Up to Something by Katrina McKelvey and Kirrili Longergan. This is one I always enjoy sharing with my nephews as their dad has a fantastic workshop full of tools and the boys often help their dad when he makes things. My nephew decided he wanted a ‘Daddy-cart’ rather than a ‘Billy-cart’, and thought these were better than box cars!!

After four stories, pizza arrived at his house and I needed to start cooking dinner at our house. If the pizza hadn’t arrived, then there was a good chance I would have been visiting the bookshelf for book number five!

It’s times like this that I love being an Aunty, and I love having a large collection of picture books to share with my nephews. I have some brand new picture books to share, they just weren’t on hand during this story time. I’ll be more prepared next time.

Latest Blogs

BTS – Swallow Me, NOW!

BTS – Swallow Me, NOW!

Let's start at the beginning with my first book, Swallow Me, NOW! Back in 2012, I joined a number of challenges, including the Chapter Book Challenge. This was a challenge in March to write a children's chapter book, junior fiction, or middle grade book. The goal was...

What I’ve Read – February 2026

What I’ve Read – February 2026

February was a big month for reading with 11 books, bringing my total so far to 18 books for 2026! This month there were audiobooks, picturebooks, novels, novellas, and a junior fiction thrown in too. Here's what I read: Belle's Secret by Victoria Purman - if you've...

Magic Lantern Story

Magic Lantern Story

Back in 2012, I participated in the first Chapter Book Challenge. This was one of the first writing challenges I did when I got back to writing fiction. The goal was simple, to write a draft of a novel for children in a month. I wrote a story where a kid named James...