Best children book readings, to surprise and captivate wedding guest

Rekindle the magic of your childhood as you seek an inspiring reading for your wedding ceremony. Delve into the pages of your favourite stories, whether they were shared by a parent or you now share them with your children. Children’s books possess a unique ability to convey emotions in beautifully simple ways, often carrying profound meaning. Incorporating a passage from these cherished tales into your wedding ceremony can be a poignant expression of your feelings on this special day.

Explore the pages of my blog, where I’ve compiled a collection of 12 readings from children’s books. These excerpts may serve as a wellspring of inspiration for your wedding ceremony, infusing it with a touch of nostalgia and heartfelt emotion.

1 & 2) Dr. Seuss

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”

or

“Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So, love the people who treat you right. Forgive the ones who don’t, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it’d be easy. They just promised it would be worth it.”

3) Winnie the Pooh by A.A Milne

“’If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.’

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. ‘Pooh?’ he whispered. ‘Yes, Piglet?’

‘Nothing,’ said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. ‘I just wanted to be sure of you.’

‘We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet.

‘Even longer,’ Pooh answered. ‘If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together…there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.’”

4) A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton

“The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold, he was happy in there. It was, after all, his cage.

Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur. The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur’s cage with kind words and loving thoughts.

‘I like this Dinosaur,’ thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. ‘Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny. He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now.’

‘I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur,’ thought the Dinosaur. ‘She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice. She is also a free spirit, which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur.’

‘But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times,’ thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. ‘He is also overly fond of things. Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of things?’

‘But her mind skips from here to there so quickly,’ thought the Dinosaur. ‘She is also uncommonly keen on shopping. Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping?’

‘I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for things,’ thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur, ‘for they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual.’

‘I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping,’ thought the Dinosaur, ‘for she fills our life with beautiful thoughts and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either.’

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old. Look at them. Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.

And that, my friends, is how it is with love. Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together. For the sun is warm. And the world is a beautiful place.”

5) The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

“’What is REAL?’ asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender before Nana came to tidy the room. ‘Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?’

‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’

‘I suppose you are real?’ said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse only smiled.

‘Someone made me Real,’ he said. “That was a great many years ago, but once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.’

6) I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg

“I like you and I know why
I like you because you are a good person to like
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it’s special
And you remember it a long, long time
You say, Remember when you told me something special
And both of us remember

When I think something is important you think it’s important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I’m funny and you think I’m funny too
Hah-hah!

I like you because you know where I’m ticklish
And you don’t tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too
You know how to be silly — that’s why I like you
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY!

I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don’t always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can’t stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time

I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It’s awful when the other person isn’t
They are so nice and oooh you could just about punch them on the nose

I can’t remember when I didn’t like you
It must have been lonesome then
Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again
And that’s how it would happen every time.”

7) The Love Monkey by Edward Monkton

‘Then they looked into each other’s eyes and, feeling the joy of truth in their souls for the first time, they began to laugh. And often they sit together still, holding each other’s hearts in their warm hands, lifting them to the light and laughing. Always laughing.’

8) The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

’She is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars; because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.’

9) The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

’I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.’

10) Matilda by Roald Dahl

’Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.’

11) Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton

’I like you a lot. You’re funny and kind. So let me explain what I have in mind. I want to be Your Personal Penguin. I want to walk right by your side. I want to be Your Personal Penguin. I want to travel with you far and wide.’

12) The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett

“One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands alone and throws one’s head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one’s heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun—which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so. And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting though and under the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries. The sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in someone’s eye.”

Home Page