Join the Journey

What you get: The full printable lyrics sheet above and a sung audio recording of the lullaby: the same comforting song every night, so your child knows exactly what to expect at bedtime.

• ✦The scripture story retold: the night's chapter told in scene and dialogue a young child can actually picture.
• ✦Beau, Scout, Willow, and Wren: the same four travelers every night, so your child always has someone to walk in beside.
• ✦Full-page illustrations: artwork on nearly every page, drawn to hold a tired child's attention at the end of a long day.
• ✦The Remember moment: near the end the story pauses and names the principle out loud, in one sentence a child can repeat.
• ✦A question to ask: one prompt before the lights go off, so the story turns into a conversation instead of a monologue.
• ✦Print-ready formatting: clean margins and page order for a home binder, or read straight from the screen with no printer needed.

A principle explained to a four-year-old tends to slide off. The same principle lived by a character they know sticks, because the child watches someone their own size make the choice and feel what comes of it.

That is why the cast never changes. Beau, Scout, Willow, and Wren show up every single night, so your child is catching up with friends at bedtime instead of meeting strangers. The routine does the heavy lifting, and the story does the teaching, so you can simply read and be present.

There is a measurable side to this too. Researchers at Ohio State estimated that reading one picture book a day gives a child about 78,000 words of exposure a year, and that children from literacy-rich homes hear roughly 1.4 million more words before kindergarten than children who are never read to. (Logan et al., Ohio State University)

• ✦The full lyrics: every verse, set large and clean enough to read by a nightlight.
• ✦A sung recording: for the nights you have no voice left, press play and let it carry the room.
• ✦A printable sheet: tape it inside a closet door or slip it into the bedtime binder.
• ✦The same song every night: no rotation and no new words. The repetition is the entire point.
• ✦Written for the Travelers: the same world as the stories, so the song closes what the story opened.

A lullaby is a signal, and it does more work than background music. Sung at the same point in the same order every night, it becomes something the body learns to answer before a single word of instruction is spoken, which is why bedtime resistance so often fades once the song is fixed.

Nothing to negotiate, nothing to announce. The song starts, and the room changes.

This has been measured. In a study of 144 infants published in Nature Human Behaviour, babies relaxed measurably, with slower heart rates and reduced arousal, when they heard lullabies, including lullabies from unfamiliar cultures in languages they had never heard. The calming appears to be built into what a lullaby is. (Bainbridge et al., Nature Human Behaviour)

• ✦By virtue or principle: thirty-six of them, from Courage and Obedience to Keeping Promises and Repentance.
• ✦By life situation: the twenty moments that actually happen: a lie, a lost temper, a first day, a hard goodbye.
• ✦By feeling: start from what your child is feeling tonight rather than from what you want to teach.
• ✦By Traveler: every story Beau, Scout, Willow, or Wren carries, for the child who has picked a favorite.
• ✦By scripture: go the other direction and find the story that belongs to the verse you are already reading.

Knowing is only the beginning. No catalogue can tell you what your child's heart needs tonight. This is a tool, and you are the one who knows them. Ask Heavenly Father, and then use what you find here to teach with.

Browsing is open to everyone, and three complete stories are free, with no card and no subscription. The Lantern opens all ninety-one.

Researchers testing whether storybooks actually shift children's moral beliefs found that most did not. Abstract fables about talking animals changed very little. Stories worked when they were directly applicable to the situation the child was already dealing with. That is the entire reason this library is organized by the problem in front of you tonight instead of by book order. (Psychology Today, on children's moral learning from storybooks)

• ✦The story in a nutshell: tonight's whole story summarized in a paragraph, so you know where bedtime is headed before the day begins.
• ✦A little background for you: the history, place, and setting behind the story, written for the parent rather than the child.
• ✦The Heart of Tonight's Story: the main gospel principle, plus the key lesson stated simply enough for a young child.
• ✦Key Scripture: the verse of the day and exactly which chapter to open if you want to read it together.
• ✦A Parent's Heart: three questions to carry with you all day (more on these below).
• ✦Read tonight's story: one tap to the full illustrated PDF, ready to read on any device or print for a binder.

The three questions in A Parent's Heart are written for you, the parent, and were never meant as a quiz for your child. They arrive early on purpose, so they can sit with you through the whole day.

• 1.A moment from your own life when you lived what tonight's story teaches.
• 2.What that principle actually feels like on a hard day, something your child can recognize in you.
• 3.A grandparent or ancestor who lived it before you were born, and how their example still reaches your family.

You read them over breakfast and let them turn over quietly while you work, drive, and fold laundry. By the time the lights go low, you are doing more than reading a story to your child. You are telling them about the time your grandmother held on, and the scripture story has become your family's story too.

This is the part parents tell us they did not expect. Researchers at Emory University's Family Narratives Lab found that children in families who told coherent, emotionally open stories about hard family moments had better self-esteem, stronger social competence, higher-quality friendships, and less anxiety and stress. (Fivush & Duke, Emory University)