Best Baby Board Books

This bright and colorful board book helps introduce your little one to some essential first words. It features 100 simple words to read and learn paired with 100 color photographs to look at and talk about. And the cover is softly padded—perfect for little hands to hold.

The high-contrast black-and-white images in this book stimulate baby’s eyes and brain, helping their developing vision learn to recognize basic shapes and patterns. Be prepared for your little one to stare at this book for hours on end!

As your baby’s senses develop over those early months, the best way to encourage their sense of touch is to provide a variety of interesting textures for them to explore. And what better things to touch than baby animals? But no need for the petting zoo, here—this book lets baby feel soft bunnies, velvety horses and scratchy pigs all within the sturdy pages.

This Eric Carle classic, complete with iconic illustrations, is a fun way to begin teaching your kiddo counting, the days of the week and, of course, food! From apples and oranges to chocolate cake and pickles, the treats in this story have been entertaining children (and feeding the hungry caterpillar) for over 50 years.

Lift-the-flap books are always a delight for little ones, and this one makes learning about body parts intriguing and fun. Elbows and bellies, fingers and toes—point to each on your baby and on yourself as you uncover it from the flap and help your baby become more aware of their own body.

This board book set is new on the scene, but it makes a big impact. Teaching your baby about people’s differences early on is crucial to limiting prejudice as they grow up, and it’s equally important for children from marginalized communities to feel seen in their books. This set includes books on all different kinds of hair, families and physical abilities to help your little one get to know more about what makes people special.

Babies love looking at other babies. And since babies exist all over the world, why not bring them into your home in the form of this simple, sweet book that showcases babies of all different cultures right in their element.

Sometimes books are for learning, and other times they’re just for fun. The silly rhymes and exciting lift-the-flap surprises in this board book will keep baby giggling even after the 500th time you’ve read it.

Beep beep! This little blue truck is everybody’s friend. And alongside the joy of hearing you make your best barnyard animal impressions (start practicing your “baa” and “quack” now), your baby will quickly learn that friendship really does make the world go ‘round.