Unique Kids Books That Make Amazing Gifts
Shopping for book presents for kids? Stop and check out this list!!! My favorite unique books that make amazing gifts! (These are also the books that help kids LOVE reading!)
Interactive books are some of my all-time favorites to gift to children! This was one of the very first lists I wanted to make here because I have had a hard time finding these engaging, fun reads. I am always on the lookout for books that make a fantastic present, the ones that engage the reluctant reader, and the ones that are so well loved! The books in this list today are the books that have unique page setups and most have one or more pieces that can be removed and/or interacted with throughout the story. These are the books that are near impossible to find in libraries, due to their complexity with moving parts and extra pieces. These are books that are treasured, put up on shelves and taken down frequently to be read together, and treasured for years to come. Interactive books are sometimes just the ticket to for reluctant readers to start enjoying books! If there is a gift giving time coming up for a child in your life, consider buying one of these favorite books for them to treasure. If you know of a book that would be a great addition to this list, please share!
(*Warning: due to their delicate nature, most of these books are meant for young children to read with help from adults or for older children who can be careful with delicate parts, if you want these stories to last.) I will share this list in the order of most sturdy to least sturdy, aka if you have a rough book handler to gift for look towards the top of the list.
Board Books
This is a sturdy, unique board book with no removeable pieces. Each page has little circles indented encouraging kids to use their fine motor skills to add Cheerios to fill in the circles. Perfect for little hands working on fine motor skills, enjoying food and books at the same time. This makes a great addition to any travel bag for a fun activity for littles on the go!
Herve Tullet has made such unique books for kids. He really helped opened the creativity door to book designing. The board book pages in this one are cut out to reveal images when a flashlight is shone to project the page on a wall. The pages all have simple wording, so feel free to elaborate or make up your own words to go along. This one makes a super fun addition to storytime at bedtime! My five year old adores this one right now! There is also The Game of Shadows, similiar concept by Tullet, but this version has been enjoyed more with kids I’ve shared it with.
This is a board book series with a hole cut out through the center of all the pages. Either on your pointer fingers or to the delight of your little, their finger pads, you are to draw a little face. The page spreads incorporate the holes into their illustrations. You poke your little finger faces through the holes to interact with each page, such a fun twist for book play. If your little loves this one, be sure to check out the rest in the series!
Five animals get owies. The reader helps each animal to feel better by washing it, kissing it, and putting a bandaide on it. The band aides are reusable and kids have a blast getting to be the helper. There have been other versions releases that use the reusable sticker concept, however, this one is still my favorite from the bunch, being as owies are such a fascinating topic for littles. Be prepared to reread this one over and over again! This one also makes a great on-the-go travel bag book!
Do your kids love bubble wrap? Check this one out! The poppers on these sturdy pages can withstand so many repeated popping sessions. The rhyming, counting, animal sounds, and more add in some additional learning when reading this fun book. This one is my favorite in the series. Seriously, my kids could not get enough of these books between the ages of 2-5!
This is another favorite in the Poke-a-Dot series! Color identification and counting up and down make up this fun read.
Little motor movers love these books! Each page spread features a track and some describing text for the pages. Either pull back or wind up the little motor mover and then let go along each page spread track. My sons love the train version.
The bug version of the pull-back busy books is great too! My daughter enjoyed this one!
Matthew Van Fleet has the unique interactive book elements down! His books feature lots of different textures, moveable pieces, flaps, and even scratch and sniff areas. They are usually made with sturdier pages and elements, so they can hold up more. Huge hit with my toddler right now!
This one by Matthew Van Fleet is another big favorite! Excellent for kids who love dogs!
Do you have a little that adores babies in your house? Or will a new baby be joining your family soon? Consider this super cute and fun interactive read about taking care of babies. Kids can feed baby, change baby’s diaper, and even help put baby to sleep. It comes with little cardboard cut-outs imbedded throughout the book that are fairly sturdy to pop out and play with in little hands. We gave this one as a present to my daughter when she turned two and she still enjoys flipping through it from time to time at age 8!
Do you have a cook/baker in the house? One of these reads might be just the perfect home addition for them! You get to follow along and help make the recipe by doing things like sifting the flour, mixing the dough, putting it into the oven, and more. Pieces move back and forth, slide out, and a sample of the end result is available to remove and use for pretend play. An apron and some time spent together in the kitchen would be the perfect present pairing with one or all of these stories! Cookies is one of the books in this yummy series. I’ll highlight the others below!
For the breakfast fan, check out pancakes!
Taco Tuesday got a little more fun by adding this book to the mix. Read and make together!
This is it for the series so far! Pizza is sure to be a hit for pizza nights! We have pizza most Fridays, but this is one we’ll read every night! This series makes a fabulous addition to cooking play areas!
My Little Red Toolbox
by Stephen T. Johnson
This is one of the first interactive unique books I remember seeing and I can remember being blown away with how popular it was with kids in the classroom, too! Throughout the book readers can draw plans, saw a board in half, drill holes, and more with fairly realistic looking cardboard cutout tools and with pages they can interact with the tools. Each page spread also features a basic shape for kids working on shape identification. This one is perfect for the little builder in your life! Unfortunately, this one is out of print at the moment, so you will have to track down a used copy. Good news though, I have heard word that this one is getting reprinted soon, so I’ll definitely add links here when available!
When I saw this book made by the same author, I knew we had to get it. It did not disappoint and is just as well loved as My Little Red Toolbox. You get to help a firefighter get ready for the day at the fire station. There’s a clock at the bottom of the page to help you keep track of time. All the tasks need to be completed in a half hour. It’s great for kids new to working on keeping time skills. The reader gets to help pack the tools, check the engine, check the dispatch radio, and more! Little vehicle lovers or especially little fire fighters lovers would be delighted to read this story!
Picture Books
This is an oldie, but a goodie! The reader gets to help move a little mouse cutout through slots throughout a house. The mouse is looking for some food while trying to stay away from the people and animals in the house. Such a fun read aloud! (Bonus, the path of the mouse runs from left to right each page spread. Perfect for prereaders to work on literacy skills without even realizing it, so much fun!)
This is the classic song in a book format. However, the illustrations are so fun and have their own story plot. Every page spread features some moveable element. The moveable elements are varied and unique. Captivating for both the littlest readers all the way through beginning readers, who can catch onto reading being familiar with the song. (Best read when sung aloud!)
A boy finds a dragon in his basement and is unsure how to care for it. He writes to various people asking for their advice on the mail. The reader gets to follow along with the story and gets to open up and read the letters sent to the boy. Funny and great fun to read, definitely one to engage and delight readers!
The Ultimate Construction Site Book
by Anne-Sophie Baumann, illustrated by Didier Balicevic
All three of my kids have found this book fascinating with its over 60 lift-the-flaps, pull-tabs, and more pieces that look at a variety of construction sites. The cranes page and the building an airplane page are the favorites at the moment. We pick one or two page spread before bed frequently to look through and talk about!
The Jolly Postman has to be one of my all time favorite books to share with kids! This may be in my top ten kids books, which is saying something for someone who’s read tens of thousands of kids books. The Jolly Postman is off to deliver letters to fairy tale characters. The reader gets to open up and read each character’s mail, which are all formatted differently and contain different elements. There’s humor, suspense, tiny details, and just overall fun. Readers will be delighted to feel as if they are part of the story and been invited to travel with the post man for the day. The stories are a bit longer, so I recommend them more for readers who have the capacity to listen for longer periods or can stop and pick up again later on.
This is one of the coolest pop-up books I’ve seen to date! If you have a dino obsessed kid, a pop-up book lover, or a reluctant reader, check this one out! Comprised of more than 35 pop-ups, varying in sizes, there is so much here for eyes to check out. Besides all the eye catching pop-ups, this read is loaded with facts about dinos and dino discovers! Lots to soak up here!
This is my newest find and such a fun unique and interactive one! Made and designed by a magician, it has a magic touch to it. The reader gets a mailbox and over the course of time, new postcards will emerge as if by magic. The new postcards “come” from various places around the world. On each postcard is an interesting fact or recipe or another idea. Fun for a globetrotting, magical read!
Do you know a child who’s fascinated with everything miniature? Loves to create? Loves stories?! Please check out one from this series! The “book” opens up to contain a scene, complete with a bookshelf to make. There are about 30 miniature books for the reader to assemble and/or create and read! Some of the books to assemble are shortened classic tales. Most of the books that are designed for kids to create give open ended prompts. Once the books are assembled they can be read and placed on the tiny bookshelf. When kids are done, they can close up all their miniature work to be hidden away in the big book for later!
This is a clever detective style book. The cases range from easy to difficult. There are flaps with clues and answers each page. This cartoon style interactive book makes a fun family read aloud for a game night or anytime together! (Fyi: There is a murder mystery in this one, so I would stick to sharing with older kids or wait to that case together for when they’re older or shy away from it altogether if you’re not comfortable.)
Ok, so this isn’t a book persay, yet… For the kid who loves to create, who loves making, drawing stories, consider this as a potential gift! With online help, kids get to design their own stories complete with illustrations and text. When their book is completed, it is printed onto a hard book copy and mailed to it’s author/illustrator! What a boost of confidence/pride for kids to get to see their own book published!
For the kid who loves comic books/graphic novels, get this one so they can try writing their own! Just like the create your own picture book, this one comes with help for creating and when it’s done, the author gets a hardcover copy of their completed comic book! Great way to encourage more reading and writing! (My daughter did the create her own picture book and loved it. When she found out that they made a comic book version, she was so excited. Shhh…this one is a gift for this year!)
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