Bedtime · Comfort · Responsibility
The Sleepy Lighthouse
A lighthouse that has never once slept finally gets a night off.
- Age range
- Ages 3-6
- Reading time
- 4 minutes
- Category
- Bedtime stories
What happens
Every boat on the coast depends on the old lighthouse, so it has stayed awake for one hundred years. When a small child rows out to ask why it looks so tired, the harbor works out a way to let it rest — and the last page is the quietest in the book.
Read the opening
Listen to this story
At the end of the harbor, where the water turns from green to blue-black, stood a lighthouse that had never slept. Not once. Not for one hundred years.
Every night it opened its enormous yellow eye and swept it slowly across the sea, and every night the fishing boats came safely home. Nobody thanked it. Nobody thought to.
One evening a child rowed out with a lantern in her lap. "You look tired," she said. The lighthouse blinked, which took a very long time, and answered in a voice like a foghorn far away: "I am. But if I close my eye, who will keep the boats?"
The rest of the story is written around your child — their name, their age, and the hero they describe.
What if your child were the hero?
Make This Story About My ChildFree, about 20 seconds, no card needed — this same adventure, starring them.
Imagine your toddler in this story
Type a first name. Imagiverse writes, illustrates and narrates the whole story in about a minute — free, no card needed.
Why this one is worth your time
- The tension resolves before the halfway point, so nothing is pending at lights-out.
- Introduces the idea of taking turns with responsibility — useful for children who insist on doing everything themselves.
- The refrain ("who will keep the boats?") repeats three times, giving pre-readers a line to say along with you.
Talk about it afterward
- Who helps you when you are tired?
- What would you say to the lighthouse to make it feel safe closing its eye?
What if your child were the hero?