50 Must-Have Baby Books for Year One
Our list includes books that make baby laugh, touch various shapes and textures and play peek-a-boo with you.
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It's never too early to start reading to your baby. In fact, studies show that reading to infants can help foster bonding and develop language skills. According to a five-year study conducted at New York University, researchers found that reading to 6-month-olds had a significant impact on their literacy skills — like name-writing — four years later. Plus, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, quality book reading in early infancy was a predictor of early reading skills.
To help you build your baby's library, we’ve curated 50 fantastic board-book recommendations for infants and toddlers. Some are based on Good Housekeeping's own testing with babies and toddlers for our annual Kids' Book Awards (which by the way, is live for 2024), while some are staffer favorites and others are timeless classics. From board books to softer cloth books, these are perfect to add to your baby registry or to gift for baby showers and birthdays. And if you have school-aged kids or tweens, make sure to check out our favorite children's books and graphic novels.
In this book, a past winner of the Good Housekeeping Kids' Book Awards, a googly-eyed red car zooms into outer space, passing the stars and the moon. Eventually, it starts to feel sleepy and its eyes grow heavy. Kids will also like to touch the crinkly textures. A tester who works as a teacher said, “I liked that the crinkle texture was different from other texture books we’ve read.” Ages 0-3
Designed especially for tummy time, this book stands upright on a surface and folds out to more than three feet long. As baby hangs out on the belly, they can look at the vintage-inspired drawings, and, thanks to the built-in mirror, their own cute faces. Ages 0-3
Stunning collage artwork and animal sounds engage baby on every page. Older babies will have a blast lifting up the flaps to reveal a tiny creature. A wise choice indeed! Ages 0-3
Pick up this sweet rhyming story about home for baby's first read. (Or gift it for a baby shower.) Pieces of colorful felt reinforce the paper pages and provide a touch-and-feel element. Ages 0+
The eye-catching black-and-white design, felt flaps and a mirror (because babies love looking at themselves) team up to make this cloth book a hit with your newborn. Ages 0-3
Preschool sibs would love to give baby the adorable prequel of their favorite book Dragons Love Tacos. We can't decide what's cuter: the die-cut pages that fold like a taco or the baby dragon. Ages 1-3
For kids who love to get their hands into things, this book features a sliding mechanism on every page that reveals a surprise. Plus, the reveals are usually adorable, courtesy of illustrator Ingela P. Arrhenius. Ages 0-2
It's going to take a while for baby to totally get what's happening in this story that highlights the pollination process. But, for now, use this winner in last year's Good Housekeeping Kids' Books Awards to show off pretty flowers and helpful bees. "So entertaining and different than other books we’ve read, it’s teaching my kids about bees and their important job,” said one parent reviewer. Ages 0-3
You can't really go with any Sarah Boynton board book, but this "Greatest Hits" collection of four, including Moo, Baa, La La La, will bring on the baby laughs. Ages 1-5
You can level up your peekaboo game with help from this board book. Adorable animals cover their eyes with die-cuts of their wings, feather or tails. As you read the cute story, you'll lift each flap revealing the animal. Ador-Boo-le. Ages 0-3
This book combines simple, rhyming text with Caldecott Honor-winning pictures. It's a snapshot of a day told with so much depth you won't tire of it. Ages 1-4
Little Fish is hiding, and babies get to check under flaps to find him and his fishy friends. The brightly colored coral, shells and seaweed they conceal themselves in makes for a happy hide-and-seek book. It's written and illustrated by Lucy Cousins, who delights preschoolers with her Maisy books. Ages 3 months+
Starting on the cover (with the "tufty" ears), there's something for kids to touch on every page of this book (part of a That's Not My series, which also includes dinosaur, unicorn and goat). Babies love feeling all different textures as they go through all the dragons, trying to find the "right" one. Ages 3 months+
The board book version of this irresistible classic tale about a teddy bear with a missing button charms both baby and grown-ups. Introduced in 1968, many parents (and even grandparents) may joyfully remember it from their childhood. Ages 2+
A fantastic first birthday gift, this interactive board book teaches little ones how to count to ten on their fingers. As your baby pokes their fingers through the die-cut slots, they become two claws, three ladybug legs and so forth. Ages 0-3
This winner in last year's Good Housekeeping Kids' Book Awards dazzles babies with a variety of winged-creatures, each featuring a different texture. They'll love running their little fingers over the fur, bumps and more. Design-conscious parents will especially appreciate the aesthetic. "The book uses great adjectives to describe each of the wings," noted one parent tester. Ages 1-5
A teether and book rolled into one, this washable creation can be connected to a stroller or toy ring. Colorful animal images engage little ones, when they're not putting them in the mouth. Ages 0-3
Goodnight Moon has had such a weird history, from being banned by the New York Public Library to the strange story about what happened to the book's rights after author Margaret Wise Brown's death. Still, it's a teacher's pick (according to Amazon) and is beloved to this day. Ages 1+
Combining so many things that babies love—counting, cute animals and food, the best-selling book The Very Hungry Caterpillar is over 50 years old. You can pair this classic with the recent Sleep Tight with the Very Hungry Caterpillar for all-day fun. Ages 0-2
Chances are, "no" and "yes" are going to be the words that your baby hears most. So it makes sense that "no" and "yes" are the only words in this funny baby book, too. The baby gets a "no" for bad behavior and a "yes" being good. (See also: Yummy Yucky.) Ages 0-3
Karen is a seasoned journalist who specializes in travel, book, lifestyle and food coverage. Cicero has visited almost every state with her family (look out Wyoming, she’s coming for you next!). She has spoken at several travel industry conferences, including PRSA and the Mid-Atlantic Tourism Alliance and was previously the senior editor at Parents. A mom who goes overboard for all the holidays, Cicero lives in the Christmas city itself: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
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