Department of Bedtime · Reading Room
Bedtime stories from the Bureau
Gentle stories from the same world as the paperwork: the junior fairy who carries tonight’s tooth, the elf’s workshop before it arrives, the Lost Sock Department. Each one has a 3-minute version for tired nights, and small cues so you can do the voices.
Ordinary evenings at the Bureau
- 6 min · or 3 min short
The Night Watchman and the Moon Clock
Mr Wick, the Bureau's night watchman, climbs the clock tower to wind the moon clock, but tonight it is ticking far too fast. He and Minutes, his note-taking owl, calm it down with slow, cocoa-smelling breaths.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Lost Sock Department
A small red dinosaur sock lands in the In Tray of the Lost Sock Department, and Mrs Darning and Sergeant Biscuit, a sausage dog with an excellent nose, set out to find its partner. A cosy case that ends with a reunion in the sock drawer.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
Tonight's Dream, Filed and Stamped
Ms Juniper Nod of the Department of Dreams builds tonight's dream from jars of seaside and sunny afternoon, helped by a counting sheep on his night off. A spilled jar of Bounce, Extra makes things wobbly before the dream sails gently home.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
A Library Card for a Cloud
Dollop, a small and rather damp cloud, wants a card from the Bureau Library, but the form needs an address, a signature and a promise to keep books dry. A whispering librarian and a rule hidden in the small print help Dollop find a way.
Read it tonight - 5 min · or 3 min short
The Pillow Inspector Calls
A very small inspector from the Bureau's Office of Pillows arrives at bedtime to test a pillow for sinkage, quietness and a proper cool side. The final test can only be done by a head of the proper size, resting on it all night.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Night the Filing Cabinets Had a Sleepover
Once a year, when the floors are polished, the Bureau's filing cabinets have a sleepover. Tiny, a brand-new card-index box with only one file, worries that one file isn't enough, until it reads that file aloud.
Read it tonight
Department of Teeth
- 6 min · or 3 min short
Pip's First Solo Run
Pip, the smallest courier in the Department of Teeth, carries a just-lost front tooth from a sleeping boy's pillow to the Enamel Castle on her very first solo flight. A gentle one for the night a tooth comes out.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Night the Tooth Fairy Got the Hiccups
The Tooth Fairy gets a very bouncy case of the hiccups and decides to wait rather than wake a sleeping girl, leaving an official Delay Notice instead. Just right for the morning the tooth is still under the pillow.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Lost Teeth Office Takes the Case
Officer Thimble and her glow-worm torch search a sleeping school for a tooth lost at lunch, and remember the Department of Teeth's oldest rule: we count the gap. For children whose tooth went missing or was swallowed.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Chief Molar Inspector's Crooked Stamp
The Chief Molar Inspector tells a nervous new recruit about her very first tooth inspection: the strawberry jam, the listening shell and the crooked stamp she still keeps framed. A warm story for first-day nerves.
Read it tonight
North Pole Liaison Office
- 6 min · or 3 min short
Night Shift at the Nice List Records Hall
An owl archivist and a penguin on exchange from the South Pole chase a thousand flying kindness slips around the Nice List Records Hall, and find the very last one in the strangest place. A cosy Christmas bedtime story.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Long Way to Santa's Desk
A green-crayon letter with a backwards S and a dog that looks like a potato travels by postbox, sorting office and snow goose all the way to Santa's desk. Lovely on the night a letter to Santa has been posted.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
Juniper and the Nap Lesson
Juniper is the fastest young reindeer at flight school and the very worst at napping, until old Captain Hollis teaches her the secret fifth step. A wind-down story that helps wriggly listeners settle.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
Santa's Goodnight Rounds
On the quiet night before the busiest night of the year, a worried young elf joins Santa on his lantern-lit goodnight rounds, checking bows, bells, carrots and reindeer until every worry has been put to bed.
Read it tonight
Elf Field Operations
- 6 min · or 3 min short
The Day Before Juniper Arrived
The day before she flies to her first family, a brand-new Field Elf called Juniper works through Mrs Hollyhock's Pre-Arrival Checklist, from curly handwriting to a suitcase the size of a matchbox.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
Bramble and the Very Long Report
Bramble the Field Elf's nightly incident reports grow from one line to a roll as long as a corridor, keeping the poor Inspector up past midnight, until a note from the child asks for just the best bit.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
Sprig and the Northbound Breeze
After the goodbye letter is written, Sprig the Field Elf packs the family's best memories into a felt satchel and rides the Northbound Breeze home to the North Pole, where every memory is filed away safely for next year.
Read it tonight
Parental Revenue Service
- 6 min · or 3 min short
The Case of the Lost Lollipop Form
On Halloween morning the Candy Tax Commissioner takes out Form L-1, the treasured Lollipop Exemption, to answer a child's letter, and then it vanishes. His junior clerk Dottie finds it in the last place anyone thought to look.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Great Costume Inspection
Every costume in the Halloween parade needs an official stamp from Inspector Clementine Crumb, who has forty-six of them. Then a child arrives dressed as a toaster, and there is no stamp for Toaster.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Pumpkin Who Wanted to Be Counted
Every Halloween the census officer counts witches, porch lights and even the cat, but never the pumpkin on the step. This year a child in a dragon costume asks the Parental Revenue Service for a brand-new box.
Read it tonight
Office of Brave Deeds
- 6 min · or 3 min short
Orlo and the Big Open Wide
Orlo the lion cub goes to the dentist for the first time, while a very slow tortoise inspector from the Office of Brave Deeds ticks off every brave step. Lovely before or after a check-up.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Backpack Who Was Nervous Too
The night before Mira starts school, her new backpack is too worried to sleep, until a moth officer from the Office of Brave Deeds explains that nervous is on the form. Made for the night before a first day.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
A Medal for One Mushroom
The Commissioner of Courage insists that one mushroom is the hardest number of mushrooms, and makes a very small medal for a very small badger. A gentle nudge for cautious eaters, with no lecture attached.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
Officer Pebble and the Last Ticket
Officer Prudence Pebble patrols Market Street writing Kindness Citations for held doors and rescued mittens, until a girl in a frog raincoat writes one back. A cosy story about noticing small kindnesses.
Read it tonight
Department of Birthdays
- 6 min · or 3 min short
A Thousand Candles for the Old Oak
A child asks the Department of Birthdays for candles for the thousand-year-old oak in her park, and Keeper Wick must count every one herself. Clocks, moths and sneezes keep making her lose count, until the smallest apprentice has an idea.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Wish That Went the Wrong Way
A boy blows out seven candles, but his wish never arrives at the Wish Receiving Room. Mr Sprinkle and the Keeper of Candles follow a sideways breeze all the way to the Department of Teeth, where somebody has mistaken it for a tooth.
Read it tonight
Leprechaun Compliance Unit
- 6 min · or 3 min short
The Leprechaun Who Tidied Up
Cormac is sent to make mischief the night before St Patrick's Day but tidies the whole kitchen instead, earning a Compliance Notice and inventing a brand new kind of mischief. Perfect for families who build leprechaun traps.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Hiccup at Rainbow's End
A runaway hiccup turns up at the Lost Property Office at Rainbow's End and will not stay on a shelf, until apprentice Bridie tries her granny's slow-breathing trick. Funny in the middle and calming at the end.
Read it tonight
Easter Bunny Logistics Division
- 6 min · or 3 min short
Parsnip's First Egg Route
Parsnip, the newest bunny at the Easter Bunny Logistics Division, learns the four rules of egg delivery, crunches some gravel and hides an egg for pigeons, then does her first real route on Easter Eve.
Read it tonight - 6 min · or 3 min short
The Eggs That Were Hidden Too Well
Marigold wins the Hiding Trials by hiding her eggs so well that nobody can find them, herself included. A report form, a chocolate-sniffing mole and a very surprising last egg sort it out.
Read it tonight