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Cover of Pajama Time!
Board · ages 1–4

Pajama Time!

Written and illustrated by Sandra Boynton

Part of the Sandra Boynton universeOpen the collection

Bestseller list
Top giftableEndlessly rereadable

A bouncy bedtime board book that turns getting into pyjamas into a rhythmic animal party. A livelier companion to The Going to Bed Book, best for toddlers who like bedtime routines with music, rhyme and silliness.

  • Best for1–4
  • FormatBoard
  • Length24 pp
  • Read aloud~4 min
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The vibe

What it’s like.

Style

  • Rhyming
  • Repetitive
  • Onomatopoeic
  • Comedic

Tone

  • Funny
  • Silly
  • Warm
  • Cosy
  • Exciting

Themes

On the pagepyjamas, bedtime routine, rhythm and rhyme, getting ready for bed, pajama dee bop, animal sleepwear, silly bedtime, movement reading

Experience meters

Energy4/ 5
Humour4/ 5
Scariness1/ 5
Peril1/ 5
Wonder2/ 5
Cosiness5/ 5
Emotional intensity1/ 5
Conceptual intensity1/ 5

What’s it about?

The story.

Pajama Time! is a bedtime book with a beat. Animals pull on pyjamas, jump, swing and get ready for the pajama-dee-bop, making the transition to bed feel playful rather than solemn. Sandra Boynton uses compact rhymes, repeated phrases and comic animal outfits to create a book that can be chanted, sung or performed. It is not as calm as The Going to Bed Book, so it may work better before the final wind-down than as the very last sleep book, but it is excellent for toddlers who resist bedtime because it makes the routine feel like a shared game. Pajama Time! is worth including because it fills a distinct high-rhythm bedtime slot: cosy, funny, participatory and very easy for adults to memorise.

Fit check

Right for your child?

Where it lands by age

  • 1
  • 3
  • 5
  • 7
  • 9
  • 11
  • 13
  • Best fit · 1–4
  • Read aloud · 0–5
  • Independent · 2–5

Prose load

Light

Visual support

Very high

Reluctant-reader friendly

Very

Read-aloud quality

Excellent

Works well for

  • Reading aloud
  • Bedtime
  • Gift-buying
  • Reluctant readers
Low sensitivityNo content warnings

Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.

Bedtime suitability

4 / 5 · Bedtime-friendly

Sensitive-child

5 / 5 · Good fit

Graphic intensity

1 / 5 · None

Best for

  • Bedtime
  • Pyjamas
  • Rhyming board book
  • Movement reading
  • Toddlers

Avoid if

  • Needs very calm bedtime
  • Wants story depth
  • Older than 5

Particularly good for children who are…

  • Bedtime battles
  • Reluctant reader
  • Starting nursery or preschool

In the classroom

How it works in school.

A rollicking rhyming bedtime board book — made for chanting and dancing before lights out.

Classroom role

  • Read aloud
  • Poetry and performance

A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.

Why it lands

Why they love it.

Why kids love it

The specific delight is the dance-party bedtime — animals in stripey and polka-dot pyjamas pajama-dee-bopping their way through the wind-down routine. The Boynton that makes pyjamas feel like a celebration.

  • Animal companions
  • Friendship and belonging
  • Family belonging

Why parents love it

The Boynton bedtime book in lively mode — pyjama-clothing routine, rhythmic rhyme, dance-floor energy. Best slotted before the final calm-down rather than as the absolute last book. Reliable mid-bedtime read.

  • Shared humour
  • Quick to read
  • Bedtime appropriate
  • Nostalgia

About the author & illustrator

Sandra Boynton.

SB

Sandra Boynton

Writer & illustrator · United States · b. 1953

Sandra Boynton is an American author-illustrator born in 1953, the dominant board-book voice of US early childhood for the last forty years. Her catalogue, Moo, Baa, La La La!, The Going to Bed Book, Hippos Go Berserk!, But Not the Hippopotamus, Pajama Time, Belly Button Book, Doggies, Snuggle Puppy, has sold over seventy million copies and is a near-universal first-bookshelf presence in US homes. Boynton's style is clean, cartoony, character-rich and rhythmically perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. She also writes adult humour (Chocolate: The Consuming Passion) and records children's music albums, but her core identity is the board books. A defining ages-0–4 author.

More from Sandra Boynton

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If you liked this, try…

Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.

Where to go next…

Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.

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Buy or borrow

Pick up a copy.

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Last reviewed · May 2026Suggest a correctionHow we recommend

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