Bedtime stories for 4-year-olds
› Add their age and what they love
Age
Loves
Optional
Who else is in it?
Optional
Length
2–120 min
4 spreads, written as you read
Mood
gentle third-person narration, a timeless setting, a small kindness at its heart. Unhurried and warm, like a story that has been told for years.
Pictures
Drawn as you reach each one, in the cover's style.
Anything else for this one?
Optional
Free to start. Just a first name, no card. Or read one first
Made on Nightstory
Real stories, written and drawn the way yours will be. The child's name has been changed in each.
The Octopus's Hat and the Slowest Race in the Sea
Rue paddles out to a sunny kelp cove where an octopus with a favourite hat challenges a turtle to a race — and everything, absolutely everything, keeps going gloriously wrong with the hat. A gentle, giggly seaside story for reading aloud at bedtime.
Read it →
The Star Who Lost Its Way Home
Elsie drifts through a soft, starry dream to help a small lost star find its constellation. It's a quiet, sensory lullaby of a story, full of gentle drifting and cozy wonder.
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The Hedgehog Who Lost His Hat
Wren meets a shy new neighbour who turns out to be a hedgehog, and together they search for a lost hat. A gentle, cozy story about making a friend and helping someone feel at home.
Read it →
Four is when stories start to have plots. A four-year-old can follow a problem and a solution, wants to know why, and will ask what happens next. The best bedtime stories for this age have one small adventure, a friend to share it with, and an ending that closes the door gently.
Ours are written for your four-year-old by name. Tell us what they love and tonight's story is about that. Say who their best friend is and that friend is in it. Tomorrow's story remembers both.
Written by the people who make Nightstory.
What makes it work at bedtime
One problem, kindly solved
A lost hat, a shy new neighbour, a cake that needs one more egg. Ask for a small problem and the story stays at bedtime size.
Give them a friend to bring
Add a favourite toy, a sibling or a pet to the cast. A four-year-old likes company on an adventure, and likes it more when the company is real.
Let them pick the theme
Ask before you begin: "dinosaurs or fairies tonight?" The choice takes ten seconds and turns a story into their story.
Questions parents ask
- How long should a bedtime story be for a 4-year-old?
- Three to five minutes read aloud. Short pages, one idea per page, and a picture to point at. You can choose the length on every story, and a five-minute one is the default.
- How many pictures are there?
- One on every page, drawn for that page, in a single picture-book style that the whole story keeps. If you would rather read without them, choose a cover only when you make the story.
- What does it cost?
- The first page is free, with no account. A free account finishes that story and brings one more free story. After that, a story costs 20 stars, and Nightstory Plus brings 840 stars a month, enough for a story every night.
Make tonight's for your child
Their name is all it takes. The first page is free, with no account.
Create tonight's story