We’ve curated a phenomenal list of the best board books for babies and toddlers here! Our selections include black-and-white books, interactive board books, alphabet books, and so many more. Check them out!
- Reading board books before bed is magical!
- The benefits of reading the best board books to kids
- Reading board books is great for bonding
- We’ve curated the best board books to make storytime magical and meaningful!
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Black and white board books
- Interactive board books
- Alphabet board books for toddlers
- Board books to teach numbers and counting
- Board books to teach color recognition
- Best board books featuring photographs
- More board books we love
Reading board books before bed is magical!
I’ll never forget when my oldest son was an infant, and we snuggled together in his cozy glider to read bedtime stories. His downy head always rested in the crevice right underneath my chin, and, somehow, his tiny hands always wrapped themselves tightly around my pointer finger. We would cuddle there, rocking gently in the fading light, and as I read to him, his breath steadied, his body relaxed, and he would inevitably fall sound asleep.
Reading was, and continues to be, one of the most important parts of our day.
It was certainly the most perfect part of the day.
And as magical as these times were, they were also benefiting him so greatly, in a myriad of ways.
The benefits of reading the best board books to kids
The importance of reading to your children, even when they are too young to understand your words, cannot be stressed enough. In a recent study, researchers found that “young children whose parents read them five books a day enter kindergarten having heard about 1.4 million more words than kids who were never read to.” This, then, is huge.
The benefits of reading to young children are tremendous. Not only is reading with your child an important part of bonding and connection, but it also helps to:
- build your child’s vocabulary,
- enhance your child’s listening, attention and memorization skills,
- teach your child about communication,
- introduce important concepts to your kids, such as letters, numbers, colors, and shapes, and
- improve your child’s behavior.
Reading engages your children by asking them to listen, point, touch and explore. It helps your little ones develop their language when you ask them to repeat or mimic your sounds and words.
Your kids will also develop socially and emotionally as you read together because they pick up on your emotions and expressions, matching your tone to your words to the pictures they see on the pages in front of them.
Reading board books is great for bonding
Most importantly, though, reading with your child helps create everlasting bonds between you and your little ones.
When you read to a toddler who is nestled in your lap, that child will undoubtedly feel closeness and connection with his or her caregiver. This translates into love, sweet love! Because children will associate reading time with warmth, safety, and affection, it will simultaneously help them associate books with happiness.
So what should you read to your littlest kids? We’ve got you covered with the best board books!
We’ve curated the best board books to make storytime magical and meaningful!
Oh, the wonderful world of board books! It is so hard to pick from the wide array of board books on the shelves these days, especially when you are trying to teach your babies and toddlers new concepts. On our list, you’ll find the best board books for toddlers, from black and white books to interactive books to books that teach important concepts like colors, numbers, and the ABCs! We hope you love these selections and find them as valuable and engaging as we do.
Happy Reading!
Frequently Asked Questions
Board books are built for our youngest readers! Typically, board books are smaller than hardcover picture books, making them easier for little hands to hold. They are made of thick cardboard in order to withstand damage from our feistiest readers. Due to the durability of the pages, it is much harder to destroy them! Thus, they are more likely to hold up over time with the child who wants nothing more than to bite, tear, jump on or even eat their beloved books.
Board books are terrific for babies and toddlers! Due to their small format, they are perfect for a baby’s hands. But even as your babies grow into active toddlers, they still love to put objects in their mouths and rip up anything they can get their hands on. Board books, with both their thick covers and pages, are much more durable than paperback or hardback stories, holding up to lots of chomping and tearing! There’s no age limit for board books. You’ll know when your child is ready to “move on” to typical picture books!
Our youngest readers love to touch, trace, pull, shake or lift tabs in books. Thus, interactive board books are fantastic for getting engaged in storytime. All concept books are great for young readers as they help children label and identify objects in their everyday worlds. And, of course, we love board books that foster our readers’ social and emotional development.
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Black and white board books
This black and white book is more than twenty years old, and it is a best seller for a reason. Cut paper art depicts children running, fish swimming, cars racing, and stars shining. The book is sturdy for tiny hands and includes some contrasting splashes of red, making it a perfect first black-and-white book for babies! This is the best board book for infants!
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This is one of our very favorite black-and-white books! It was by far a family fave when my boys were infants. Black & White is an accordion-style book, allowing it to stand on the floor on its own. It features fourteen high-contrast images, and it is a perfect visual for babies to watch and explore when they are doing that all-important tummy time!
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RELATED: For more phenomenal black-and-white books, check out this list!
Interactive board books
This book is an interactive beauty! If you have a child who loves seek and find books, he will love discovering new animals on every page. Not only is the book stunning, with its intricate die-cut pages and graphic design animals on every page, but it encourages children to count while also teaching about animals across the globe. This is an innovative gem, and we love the color version as well, which is on our list of preschool color books!
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Little hands will get a workout with this fabulous book. Why? It encourages toddlers to trace their fingers along grooved paths that zig and zag and twist and turn. Our littlest readers are encouraged to play and explore in this hands-on book that provides young kids with an amazing multi-sensory experience. An awesome book to enhance our children’s fine motor skills!
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This book is genius! Think of hiding a small object in one of your tightly-fisted palms and asking your kiddo to guess which hand the object is in. Well, Guess Which Hand is exactly that — in board book form with a wheel to turn and flaps to lift. This is one of my favorite books for 2-year-olds. As a result, it has become a go-to book for baby showers because of the joy and wonder it elicits in little ones!
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Both of my kids were absolutely enamored with Usborne’s “touchy-feely” books, particularly the “That’s not my” series/ I can say without a doubt that these tactile, interactive books for toddlers are some of the best board books out there. Each book in this series features an animal, person, or object combined with simple repetitive text. Each page invites tiny fingers to explore various different textures (fuzzy, rough, soft, bumpy, etc). The books are sturdy and well-built, the illustrations are bright and fun, and the textures help develop and stimulate sensory skills. For more awesome five senses books, click the link!
Kids will absolutely adore giving “hi” fives to all of the animals that greet them in this adorable book. From animal sounds to bright pictures to interactive fun on every page, your toddlers won’t stop wanting to high-five, and this engaging book will have your kids giggling long after the final page. Such a fun board book for your littles!
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RELATED: We have a whole list of interactive books for toddlers on the blog, so make sure to check it out!
Alphabet board books for toddlers
This book rocks, plain and simple! It features thick pages, each cut into a capital letter that children will enjoy tracing with their fingers as they familiarize themselves with the letters’ lines, curves, and holes. Even better, it presents a peek-through guessing game as kids will use the letter and illustrated clues to determine what word beginning with the corresponding letter is presented on the next page. Genius!
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The TouchThinkLearn books are, in my humble opinion, some of the best board books on the market, and I absolutely adore their alphabet book for toddlers. The raised die-cut pieces make this ABC book a tactile experience so different from the other alphabet books out there. The graphics are simple and bright, and this book brilliantly engages children on both visual and sensory levels, creating a much more immersive way to learn the ABCs. Amazing!
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Oh man, this book is an absolute beauty! Each page of this one features an oversized capital letter, and when you look closely, you will find that each letter is composed of gorgeous images beginning with that particular letter. “A” includes apples, airplanes, automobiles, and an alarm clock, whereas M includes a manatee, moon, mitten, and monkey. Even better? Each page includes one alliterative line of text corresponding to the featured letter. An exquisitely gorgeous alphabet book for toddlers!
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RELATED: Looking for more of the best alphabet books? Make sure to check out this list.
Board books to teach numbers and counting
This is such an adorable book that has kids counting from one to ten while also introducing other mathematical concepts. Toddlers will be in awe of the cute kittens, and parents will enjoy helping their kids think beyond counting by introducing simple addition and subtraction, too. So clever and a total gem!
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My boys were mesmerized by this fabulous board book! We love the way it asks toddlers to take a close look at one simple object and then guess what it may turn into when they open the page fold. With each page fold, the number of animals on the page increases, from one all the way to ten. Toddlers will be mesmerized, and your older children will love making predictions and guesses.
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This is one of the most treasured stories on our shelf, and the very best board book to teach counting for the way it encourages affection and play between parent and child. In this story, a tired baby is getting ready for bed. What follows is a countdown of kisses given to the baby by all members of her family… until, of course, the baby falls sound asleep. For our full review of Counting Kisses, click here!
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RELATED: We have many more counting books in this post, so make sure to check it out!
Board books to teach color recognition
What you can make with a yellow circle? How about a lion? What about a green square? Maybe a frog! This stunning new book is an awesome mashup of pictures, poetry, and spatial relationships, all wrapped up in vibrant colors and shapes. Preschoolers see captivating transformations in every page turn, from shape to color to thing. From red to yellow to magenta, a beautiful array of colors will capture not only your eyes but your heart, too! This is a puzzle of a book, certain to mesmerize young readers!
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We love Steve Light’s work, and this simple yet perfect book is wonderful! Toddlers will take a journey with a black bird as it flits and flies from one spot outside to another. The black bird flies above the green grass, past orange leaves, and under pink flowers. A beauty, and so very perfect to teach your youngest babes colors. This is one of the best board books for toddlers!
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Who doesn’t love asking little kids their favorite color? And what child can only name one? We love the way this book walks readers through all the colors of the rainbow and the way the narrator flip-flops back and forth as she tries to settle on her favorite. Aside from the wonderful text, this book, quite literally, radiates light. With simple prose and die-cut squares resembling stained glass, little ones will be mesmerized when holding this book to the light. The colors truly glow!
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Teaching toddlers about colors is so much fun when you have an innovative book like this one! In this cute book sure to entertain your little ones, Zack and Zoe have their paint brushes in hand and are seeking to paint shapes all different colors. But what are they turning the shapes into? You can turn the acetate pages to find out how colors transform the world and spark imagination! For more preschool shape books, click the link!
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RELATED: Check out our huge list of preschool color books if you are looking for more of the best board books to color your world!
Best board books featuring photographs
Did you know research has shown that babies love looking at photos of other babies? This is one of the reasons we love Toesy Toes, both for its real photographs and for the way it celebrates those cute little piggies in a variety of different situations. If you love playing “This Little Piggie” because you can’t get enough of your toddler’s tiny feet, this is just the book for you!
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One kiss, two kiss, three kiss, four! This is the most adorable counting book, and we love it even more for its gorgeous photographs showing a diverse group of men, women, and children, and for its bilingual text (it is written in English and Plains Cree!). Stunning, sweet, and oh so much fun. Who doesn’t love learning to count kiss by kiss?
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This is another one of our favorite board books! Babies in real photos make faces depicting various emotions, namely, happy, sad, angry, surprised, and silly. The reader is asked to match the emotion to the baby’s face, and then to make their own faces. The mirror at the end of the book makes this one a total winner. Love!
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More board books we love
This is one of the best board books to teach toddlers their first words. Why? Just look at that beautiful cover, with its diverse representation and alternative family structure. It is simply wonderful, and I love the way it tells the child’s journey as she goes about her day. We love diverse books, and this is such a great introduction to vocabulary for little ones!
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Oh my, we are absolutely in love with this book, one of four in a series that makes for an amazing set! In this particular book, Bear has a lot to give. But she only has one ice cream cone. Will she share? These humorous books explore simple concepts through expressive animals and simple, catchy sentences. I truly adore these! Other titles in this series include Will Giraffe Laugh, Will Sheep Sleep, and Will Ladybug Hug.
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These concept books are fabulous, and like the above, this series would make an amazing toddler book set perfect for new babies! These books are so valuable in that they create sensory experiences for toddlers to learn new words and ideas. This particular book explores opposites such as day and night and big and small, and we simply love it! In addition to Opposites and ABC (above), the TouchThinkLearn series includes Shapes, Colors, and so many more!
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I have read this book so many times I can recite it by heart, at any time of day. This was a huge winner in our house, for we adored its lovely rhythm and cadence. Though it is simple, it has enough of a story that it keeps preschoolers thoroughly engaged and entertained as well. The best part about this story? It imparts to toddlers how sweet it is to share. There’s nothing better than that! For our full review of Gossie, click here!
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This sweet book, a companion to Curls, is an ode to Black boy joy. It centers around a young boy and his cheerful day, and ends with a celebration of his beautiful brown skin, shining like the night. What a glorious book to add to children’s bookshelves worldwide!
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This book is an example of understated, elegant literature that is as gentle as a whisper as you read it to your toddler. Simple, lyrical, and oh-so-perfect, this is the story of the love parents have for a new baby and the importance that child has in her new home. I dare you to read this diverse board book without choking up!
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A fun bilingual book with a coordinating app that tells the story of three chickies (los pollitos) and their mother hen. We adore the way this book highlights unconditional love between parents and children, and, let’s be honest, the song on the app is so much fun and will have you singing for days on end!
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I’ve always had a hard time recommending a potty training book because there wasn’t a story that I absolutely loved. But that all changed when Potty All-Star landed on my desk, finally giving me an adorable book for all of you who are looking to get your toddlers out of diapers and into underwear! In this super creative story, a young child (who appears gender-neutral, making it perfect for both girls and boys) is eager to get off the bench, where she has been stuck in diapers for far too long. But now she’s ready for the big leagues, and that means learning to head right to the hoop (the toilet bowl!) when she has to pee or poop. This adorable book is brilliant, for its unique premise, great illustrations, and fun spin on potty training. A must-have!
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Thank you for writing such detailed descriptions of each book!