Long after they stop mouthing books, kids will want to touch them, grab them, feel them, sniff them. Let them! Indulge them! Get them books that give them these exploratory opportunities. I chose more than one book from this category, I love them so.
Matthew Van Fleet
Van Fleet is a master of texture. Shiny, bumpy, fluffy, he’s got it all. Add in flaps, pull tabs and a cast of super cute animals and you have an irresistible addition to any collection. Word to the wise: Include a pack of glue dots. Nothing works better for reattaching the heads of decapitated nightingales. Also, because the Van Fleet books are delicate, libraries usually don’t have them. They won’t survive that wear and tear. Best to have a copy just for your own littles.
I love Alphabet and Tails for the full Van Fleet experience:
Munch, Lick and Sniff are a cute trio particularly when purchased together but are no frills compared to the prior two. That said, they are more likely to survive intact as well, although the mouse whiskers on Sniff are a bit delicate.
Dog, Cat and Moo use photos instead of illustrations. The Dog version has dogs pooping and peeing at the end, in case that’s the kind of thing you’d like to know before buying. It shows illustrated pee and I think just a crouch for the pooping process.
I am NOT a fan of Dance, so I will anti-recommend that – it’s a long story, so littles will often get antsy.
Xavier Deneux
I already mentioned Deneux in my post on black & white picks and to be honest, I ended up with two Deneux books in my final basket. His Touch Think Learn series has quite a few excellent options. I have not read them all, but I love the animals ones. Take a minute to click through to Amazon, just to see. It is particularly great how Deneux offers some vocabulary that goes with each picture. For parents unused to discussing books with their kids it’s a great tool that will help them extend other books later. I will ask that you avoid Deneux’s Homes though. The depiction of an igloo and a person inside “shivering” is not something I can endorse.
Alphaprints
Alphaprints is something I never would have picked up on my own. It’s a little too bright and I didn’t particularly see the appeal of fingerprint creatures. But I had a Barnes & Noble gift card burning a hole in my pocket and two seriously stir crazy littles to get out of the house and well, we ended up coming home with Colors which soon became a favorite of the littler. He loved, loved, loved, running his fingers over the bumps and ridges. The pictures also all include everyday objects and as they grow older kids love looking for the basketballs which double as the crocodile’s eyes or the leaves that are the zebra’s ears.
DK Children’s Peekaboo Series
Are there any books more ubiquitous than the DK Peekaboo books? They come in Pop-Up (not recommended for the littlest readers who will have those in pieces before you’ve read it through once), Noisy (oh how my children loved these and loved them until there were more tabs off than on and the batteries died) and just plain old Peekaboo.
DK does a great job of showing children of lots of different races in their books. I believe I’ve also seen a child who appeared to have Down Syndrome. I can’t remember if I’ve seen a child with glasses though. I’ll look. Basically what I’m saying is that they are at least making a solid effort in regards to representation which means a lot to kids who are reading them.
And while the flaps on the Noisy Peekaboo series are smaller and tend to tear off, I’ve found the regular Peekaboo books to be quite sturdy. Their flaps are nearly full page size and hold up to a lot more wear and tear than most flap books I’ve seen. The regular Peekaboo set also include a variety of textures for kids to explore once they’ve opened the flaps.
Peekaboo
Noisy Peekaboo
That’s Not My…
In this series by Fiona Watt, published by Usborne, a mouse investigates various things declaring each to be the wrong one until he finally finds his. The illustrations are adorable, the text is short and sweet, even really young ones can often sit through the whole thing and the textures are great. The series has plenty of adorable animals from the banal (kitten) to the exotic (hedgehog) but also has trucks, trains, pirates, princesses for a full range. They use lots of great descriptive adjectives as well!
Final Picks
I ended up with Tails by Matthew Van Fleet, Baby Animals by Xavier Deneux and Bedtime Peekaboo by DK Children. I would have gotten That’s Not My Elephant but my indie couldn’t get it in and I ended up skipping it.
What are your favorite touchy-feel-explore books for babies?
