Today I want to share with you some of the best books for babies and toddlers. I’ve heard people asking at what age they should introduce books to babies and toddlers and my opinion is it’s never too early. Find all the best children’s books here.
With babies and toddlers short books that keep their attention are the best. We have a variety of books including board books, fabric books, noisy books and lift the flap books. Below I’ll tell you a little about why I think each type of book is perfect for little ones and recommend a few from each category too.
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Fabric books for babies
Fabric books or cloth books are perfect babies. They’re not easy for enthusiastic page-turners to damage which with babies is a real bonus. Fabric books are also really tactile for babies to feel lots of different textures. Indestructible’s are another great book for young readers as the idea is that they can withstand anything.
Recommendations:
Indestructible * Creep crawl.
Jelly cats * Farm tails.
This * high contrast cloth book is perfect for newborn babies.
Find more Touch and Feel Board Books here.
Black and white books and noisy books
High contrast pictures are great for babies. This book has no words but it is a perfect first book for newborns. I picked it up 5 years ago in the supermarket so I don’t think it is available anymore but there are many similar books. Like * this one.
Hush….. baby bear is sleeping is another high contrast image book but this time it also has sound elements. This is different from most noisy books as the noises are actually quite calming. My daughters loved this book and it really captured their attention. We have lots of other noisy books that they enjoyed too.
Recommendations:
We love * Hush…..Little bear is sleeping
I love Jane Foster’s illustrations. How gorgeous is her * Black and white book?
Lift the flap books for toddlers
We love lift the flap books. Flaps add an interactive element to each page and this help to keep young children interested. Older babies and toddlers will love this type of book.
Recommendations:
For farm yard fun, try * Oh Dear, Rod Campbell
This is a lovely, short story * Foxes socks, Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
Have you got the classic * Dear zoo also by Rod Campbell?
Puppet and interactive books for babies
Just like noisy books and lift the flap books, these are great for keeping older babies and toddlers attention. Interactive books can involve puppets, touch and feel books and books with moving parts. My girls enjoyed feeling the different textures of that’s not my books (we have a few) but puppet books were their favourites when they were little. They found the puppets funny. They also giggled when we showed them how to trace the paths in the on the move book.
Recommendations:
We love the that’s not my series such as * That’s not my monkey.
Finger maze books like * Follow me around the world
Finger puppet books like * The hungry caterpillar
Busy books packed full of taps to push and pull are great fun like * Busy Alice in Wonderland Toddlers will love *
Bedtime stories for babies
It’s never too early to start reading bedtime stories to your baby. Find out our favourite short bedtime stories for babies here.
Find my favourite rhyming bedtime stories here.
More ideas for babies
Find lots of simple outdoor activities for babies here.
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I’ve never seen the hush book, it looks great for my little one, we are such a fan of lift the flap books they really keep little ones attention. Some great recommendations thank you x
Thank you. Hush was new to us this year. We love it.
we love the fabric books! they are less likely to get wet and damaged.
Exactly and so colourful too.
We love the Julia Donaldson books, our favourite at the moment is Postman Bear. I’m going to keep a look out in our local book store for the other books you have recommended though ?
We haven’t read postman bear!
I think you must have seen our bookshelf haha! X
Great minds!
We love the ‘that’s not my’ books. The Rod Campbell books are brilliant too x
That’s not my books are great and there is something for everyone.
These look super for babies. It’s so important to introduce books as soon as possible.
I couldn’t agree more
Fab ideas – Violet is so into books now so I want to get a few more for her. She loves books with a puppet in the middle the most!
Lyndsay xx
Puppets are a big hit in this house too.
Some of these look brilliant, my wee boy has just turned one so we’ve just started reading to him – we’ll need to pick up a few of these!
I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
We love the hungry caterpillar
Lovely books, my little girl loves the ‘thats not my…’ range.
Great choice of books, we love the ‘That’s not my…’ series. Zach enjoys life the flap books but needs a lot of supervision
I like the look of these books. Especially the fabric books.
We saw the Hush book at the library a couple weeks ago. My boys are too old for it now, but they had fun pressing the sounds.
Jack loves the Lift the Flap books. Also, we have the Hungry Caterpillar with the puppet, which always gets a few giggles.
They’re all lovely recommendations. We introduced books with our son when he was only a few weeks old (at bedtime) and he still loves them. I’m a firm believer in having books in your child’s life from a young age. #bloggerpinparty
Claire my little boy loves all of the ‘That’s not my’ books I think I had read That’s not my Elf all year now!:) the black and white books are lovely too. We love books in this house!
I feel quite sad that we have grown out of board books now, although some of them make for great first readers as by then the kids are so familiar with them! We loved the ‘That’s not my…’ books and of course have most of Julia Donaldson’s books 🙂
My eldest is heading towards first readers. I’m sure she’ll love readind some of our board books.
Great round-up here- we love the ‘That’s not my…’ range and also ‘Oh Dear!’ I’ve just discovered ‘Oi Frog!’ which is really, really funny, especially if you are at a stage in family life where you spend a lot of time reading early reader books with kids! #bloggerpinparty
We borrowed oi frog! (Or oi dog) from the library it is a great book.
This is a great list of books. We had a similar black & white one when my daughter was little #bloggerpinparty
Thank you. Black and white books are great for babies.
Love the colourful fabric books #bloggerpinparty
What a great selection #bloggerpinparty
Completly agree.
This is a great post!! Brilliant selections! #KLTR
I miss the little books like this. My girl is reading at a much higher level now but I can’t help but love these books!
I think I’ll miss them too.
I particularly love cloth books and puppet books for babies and children as I think they’re a great way to engage with them. I will need to be updating my collection again at some point next year so thanks for the recommendations and I totally agree with you it’s never too young to introduce children to books. Thanks for linking up to #KLTR
We love books in this house and the That’s not my …. are a firm favourite. We’ve currently got the Christmas ones where the girls play during the day. #KLTR
Definitely agree that it’s never too early to start looking at books, these are some great choices! #kltr