One night many years ago, I had to get my, now adult, then 6 and 4 years old daughters to go to bed and call it a day.
Of course, like any parent, I promised them that I'd read them a story.
And they sort of bought that line, but they really would not settle down, and made it absolutely clear that they wanted to hear something different.
So out of desperation, I grabbed this beloved book, which by then was a very faded falling apart yellowing non acid free paperback from near my desk in my home office and read them both a story in their shared bedroom.
It was from this book and it was "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."
Their eyes lit up and they were totally captivated and they settled down.
They had never experienced anything like that story and they loved it.
And that night I heard "more daddy, more daddy!!!!"
So then I read them "Time Enough To Last," followed by "Third From The Sun," and partway through "Third From The Sun" they were sound asleep.
After that, the problem was not getting them to go to bed.
The problem became, as they would without parental pleading, wash up, brush their teeth and scoot into bed and almost always chant..."read, read, read more Twilight Zone."
Yes, very quickly, every night, they wanted more than one episode story from this book read to them.
And they loved it.
Then when they had sleepovers in our home with their friends, an event every parent dreads as the pack of kids will almost never settle down for the night, our house was different.
We became famous in the "sleepover circuit" of my kids and their friends as to having really cool bedtime stories.
So we never ever had a problem of getting a pack of sleepover kids to call it a night.
To a kid, we were the cool parents who did not just read them bed time stories.
We were the cool parents who read the kids stories from the "Twilight Zone," not the stories that every kid had heard from Fairy Tale Books.
It got to the point where, in our small town, the parents of sleepover kids would call and ask if it was really true that we read out kids stories from the Twilight Zone.
Occasionally, one of the moms would come over the day before to check out what she had heard from her kids, my kids pals.
And over coffee my wife and one or more of the moms of sleepover kids would read a story together and pick out what stories were deemed appropriate for little Susie, Liz, Tonya, Morgan, and more.
Well it worked, and now today, my adult kids are reading the plot summaries to their kids from this book, who, and I've seen them scramble off to bed instantly for the nightly reading of bedtime stories from "The Twilight Zone Companion."
Try it, your kids will love the stories.
In fact these stories got my kids totally interested in Science Fiction, so the "X-Files" and "Star Trek Voyager." became staples of my kids viewing.
Note that the stores in this book, all from "the Twilight Zone," have now become children's middle school literature.
In some of the English Class anthologies, "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street," is featured.
Have fun and do take your sons and daughters to the "Twilight Zone," they will go to bed and then sleep without a fuss.
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Want To Totally Captivate Your Children Into Going To Bed? This Made An Excellent Bedtime Story Source, Every Night For Years.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2017
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 11, 2009
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David Carey
What all Companions should be
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 15, 2011Mistresscatty
Must have for fans
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 21, 2017
