Best Interactive Books for Kids of 2023

Press Here by Herve Tullet is a wonderful book. It invites children to press the yellow blob on the cover, then turn the page and see what happens.

Children touch, blow, or shake the blobs within, and then flip the page over to see how they have changed.

It’s a print book — it’s no technological marvel and doesn’t have bells and whistles. It’s an incredibly simple idea, developed into something brilliant.

It’s interactive, great for groups, and teaches children about cause and effect. Even adults will find themselves immersed.

Our world is a beautiful yet complex place. If your knowledge is a little lacking (I admit I’ve forgotten some lessons from school), or you have trouble explaining geographical concepts to your small child, this book can help.

Look Inside Our World breaks down what our planet is and how it’s formed. It uses beautiful illustrations and flaps for interactivity in a way that children can understand and enjoy.

The publisher, Usborne, also offers interactive books for topics such as space, the human body, and seas and oceans. You can pick and choose the subjects you want your child to learn.

This multi-concept book by Matthew Van Fleet uses an astounding range of interactive experiences (flaps, tabs, scratch-and-sniff, and more) to teach children words.

Alphabet is excellent for preschool kids, as it helps them learn about opposites, synonyms, action words, and other critical language for their future education. It’s also fun and colorful, so children won’t feel like they’re learning.

All the kids I know love stickers. And I’m sure parents will love these stickers that teach their child about ornithology.

Showcasing many of our beautiful and unusual feathered friends, The Big Sticker Book of Birds is an activity book that is educational too.

It doesn’t end with stickers either. The book also has games and puzzles for you and your child to enjoy together.

The author, Yuval Zommer, has created sticker books for other animal groups too, including insects and ocean creatures. So, if birds aren’t your child’s favorite animals, you have other options.

Have you read The Chronicles of Narnia yourself and would love to share the story with your child? Do you want your child to step into the world of fantasy? Or do you simply want to improve your child’s reading through a story that has proved enthralling and enduring?

The Chronicles of Narnia Coloring Book uses classic illustrations from the seven Narnia stories to draw your child into a stunning fantasy realm.

While they color — an activity most children love — you can read the story along with them. Help your child develop a passion for both art and reading with this attractive coloring book.

This is potentially a book of great significance. There may be times when you feel like you don’t understand your child, or your child doesn’t know how to express how they feel. That’s what this book is for.

How Are You Feeling Today? by Molly Potter is aimed at helping children cope with their emotions. But it’s disguised as another fun and colorful book on your shelf.

In the book, your child finds the emotion they are feeling, and then they can discuss it with you and express what they are going through.

It sounds bizarre for a children’s book, but this book has no pictures.

So, how could it possibly hold a child’s attention? Well, the idea is that you have to say what is written on the page out loud. A lot of it is quite silly — words like BLURF.

Children will not only want you to read it so they can hear you say funny words, but they will undoubtedly want to read it themselves.

Nick Bromley and Nicola O’Byrne have delivered a book with a bite. If you’re not sure how to make a book exciting for your kids, then this is the one for you. It pretty much guides you the whole way.

This was a regular old storybook until a crocodile got inside and started wreaking havoc. Children will love the unexpected twists and turns, and the overall chaos of the story as the crocodile chomps down on letters and sentences, trying to make his escape.

This book was the winner of the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize 2014.

Have you heard of scanimation? It involves a form of optical illusion used to trick the eye into seeing movement.

Gallop! by Rufus Seder takes full advantage of this technique to create a book of motion for your kids to enjoy.

You get the cool effect of seeing animals appear to move as you turn the page. And children may well want to jump up and copy the way the animals move for themselves, which is sure to entertain the entire family.

If you have a baby who’s too small to jump around, they’ll still benefit from the mental stimulation of these “moving” images.

We’re going quite a bit younger here — so young that we’re not yet considering reading skills at all. But it’s nice to include something for the littlest of little ones.

Vtech Nursery Rhymes Book pretty much explains itself — but it’s enhanced with lights, sounds, and music to make itself extra appealing to babies. It’s also colorful and full of pretty pictures for your baby’s eyes.

This book will help your baby develop language and dexterity skills.

Unicorns have made quite the comeback in recent years, as those glittery unicorn drinks and muffins from Starbucks tell us. Odds are, you have a child at home who would love this book right from the cover.

Unicorn Handwriting Practice by Little Learner Workbooks teaches your child how to write their ABCs, including upper and lowercase — helping your child to achieve the right letter formation.

Writing is excellent for hand-eye coordination and helps with the pen control skills that your child will need for school.

Pretty, pink, and educational — have fun scribbling away.

Let’s start with a classic, a children’s book by Eric Carle. It’s based on such a simple idea that I’m sure children’s authors around the world are kicking themselves for not having come up with it. It’s the story of a little caterpillar who eats and eats until he can’t eat anymore.

Published in 1969, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a picture book with some basic interactive elements. Children can put their fingers through the holes in the food the caterpillar has eaten. It may seem simple, but there’s a reason this book has sold over 50 million copies ⁽¹⁾.

They have selected your child. They have an egg, and an invitation to become a Dragon Keeper. Who wouldn’t want a dragon?

So, what now?

Well, they have to learn how to take care of their new baby dragon. That’s where The Dragon Keeper’s Handbook by Kate Haworth and Monica Armino comes in.

This book brings together various interactive components to offer a lovely humorous book that should hold the attention of your child. If you happen to be a bit of a fantasy geek yourself, you may like that the author has packed in plenty of references to real-life dragon mythology.

If you want your kids to get a little wiggly and show off their drama skills, Can You Make a Scary Face? might be a great pick for you.

Jan Thomas’s picture book features a demanding ladybug who will instruct your child to do things such as make scary faces, dance, laugh, or jump.

This is an entertaining book for multiple children or classrooms. It will get them to burn up a bit of their extra energy. Simple, yet super exciting for kids, grab this book when you just want to have some silly fun and do a little physical activity.