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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Sophie Brickman

Here’s how to do bedtime stories for your kids, according to two master storytellers

‘Why, you might ask, am I taking narrative direction from someone who requests sprinkles on her eggs?’
‘Why, you might ask, am I taking narrative direction from someone who requests sprinkles on her eggs?’ Photograph: PhotoAlto/Alamy

In my years as a journalist, I’ve had some challenging assignments: file a piece about an underground dinner for Michelin-starred chefs that ends at 3am in time for it to hit the morning pages, write an obit for an almost-dead person by calling up his nearest and dearest and asking for a few punchy quotes. But all pale in comparison with my new assignment which, like Sisyphus, I must complete nightly.

“Tell me a story about a book that is broken, and then the unicorn comes for a sleepover, but she’s really big,” my preschooler barks from her bed, her face awash in the neon pink emanating from her polar bear nightlight.

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