Which material to use to help the printed word survive rambunctious young readers is a long-running question, with solutions ranging from the translucent mica of early hornbooks to Tyvek in twenty-first-century “Indestructibles.” One solution is fabric. Books for children were first printed on cotton or linen in 1902 by toy company Dean & Son for children who “wear their food and eat their clothes.” Often called rag or cloth books, they predate modern board books. Whether quilted cotton, poly-cotton blends, vinyl intended for the bathtub, felted flaps, or textured swatches in touch-and-feel board titles, books with fabric content for the youngest readers are still popular today.

With minimal words, cloth books offer a rich sensory experience with tags to grasp, flaps to lift, or nubby corners to chew. They straddle the line between book and toy and can be either published with ISBNs or produced with Universal Product Codes by toy makers. Toy and gift company Jellycat offers winning examples of cloth books for the toy market; their Tails series features textured, tuggable tails protruding from the fabric pages. Cloth books aren’t ideal for library circulation, but they’re welcome baby shower gifts. One benefit is that many are washable — but let them air-dry to preserve the plastic embedded inside for crinkly sound effects.

Here’s one recommended example of a 2024 cloth book:

Baby’s First Cloth Book: Cuddly Bear
illus. by Ingela P. Arrhenius (Nosy Crow)

This high-contrast, padded cloth book presents a common animal (and, in one case, a smiling acorn) on each verso. A different critter appears on each recto tucked behind a colorful, securely attached felt flap. While the text is serviceable (“Here’s an Owl! / Where is the rabbit?”), Arrhenius’s illustrations are clear and eye-catching for newborns learning to focus. A middle page is embedded with a crinkling material for auditory stimulation, and the final page features a baby-safe mirror under a felt flap paired with the prompt, “Where are you?” A stroller handle with a Velcro attachment allows for play (and maybe reading) on the go.

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Bath books, often made of waterproof plastic or foam materials, are fun to toss into the tub, but look for titles that are PVC-, phthalate-, and BPA-free. They float, and my son used them as islands in bathtime play — and reading one makes for a good distraction during hair washing. The trick with these is how to dry them, since their wet pages cling together. Most feature an aquatic theme or take place in a tub, as in Sandra Boynton’s Bath Time! (Boynton Bookworks).

Here’s a recommended bath book from 2024:

Let’s Learn About Dinosaurs [Bathtub Genius]
by David Miles and Stephanie Miles; illus. by the authors (Bushel & Peck)

The novel feature of this bath book is the color-changing special effect that’s activated when the book gets wet. Little ones can dunk the book or rub a damp finger over white sections on the pages to make a titanosaur, a pterodactyl, a plesiosaurus, and more emerge. The most satisfying reveal occurs on the final page where dinosaur fossils appear as if they have been excavated. The text discusses diet, key traits, and the extinction of dinosaurs. Companion titles include Let’s Learn About Bugs and Let’s Learn About Colors.

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And now for a 2024 and early 2025 roundup of these books’ more prolific and stiffer cousins: board books.

Get Dressed, Belly Button!
by Lucie Brunellière; illus. by the author; trans. from French by Linda Burgess (Gecko)

With pages that flip up from the bottom, little ones can dress this adorable (and calm) tot by adding an item of clothing with each turn. Brunellière’s inviting, graphically simple images work as de facto paper dolls for toddlers. Brief, read aloud–friendly text (“Beep beep, belly button tucks into a top”) names each upcoming article of clothing, from socks to winter hat. The companion, Good Night, Belly Button, follows a similar formula and allows the reader to tuck a toddler into bed.

We All Play
by Julie Flett; illus. by the author (Greystone Kids)

This board-book version of the 2021 picture book (rev. 5/21) is a lively ode to toddler play, Cree language, and the animal world. Expressive verse describing animal actions is paired with playful images in muted earth tones. On a few spreads, children hop like rabbits, swim like belugas, and snooze like wolves. Cree and English words accompany the art, and a list of Cree animal names is appended. For more board-book adaptations of previously published picture books, look for the clever A Bear, a Bee, and a Honey Tree (Hippo Park/Astra) by Daniel Bernstrom, illustrated by Brandon James Scott, and the cozy Love Always Everywhere (Nosy Crow), illustrated by Sarah Massini.

Honk Honk Woo Woo [All About Sounds]
by Emma Garcia; illus. by the author (Boxer)

Some of the easiest sounds for toddlers to reproduce are onomatopoeic. Here youngsters can recite the s­ignature sounds of emergency vehicles, including a police motorcycle’s “Woo Woo,” a tow truck’s “Vroom,” and an ambulance’s “Waa Waa.” There is just enough narrative describing a (tame) accident, dramatized by Garcia’s bright, chunky vehicles sporting googly eyes. For more onomatopoeia, this time with a musical bent, try Let’s Make Music (Knopf) from the All Are Welcome series by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman, and for more transportation fun, try Firefighters (Flowerpot) from the Finn’s Fun Trucks series by Finn Coyle, illustrated by Srimalie Bassini.

It’s a They!
by Lindsay Herriot (Orca)

In this gender-expansive celebration of newborns, we see older siblings snuggle and cuddle with their younger kin. The photos gathered from a variety of photographers are adorable, diverse, and appealing to preschoolers and babies alike. The buoyant verse, with one couplet per double-page spread, is a helpful tool to open up conversations about gender with older siblings, friends, and extended family members: “Our new baby gets lots of questions, / like ‘Are you girl or a boy?’ / We aren’t sure of their gender yet — / and they bring us so much joy.” Also available in a bilingual English/French paperback edition (It’s a They! / Bienvenue à notre adelphe). For more baby photos, try The I Can Say Dada Book and The I Can Say Mama Book (Sourcebooks) by early speech expert Stephanie Cohen, written with the goal of encouraging children’s expressive language.

¡Salta un poquito! / Hop a Little! [Baby Rhyme Time]
illus. by Annie Kubler and Sarah Dellow (Child’s Play)

Bouncy babies and toddlers cavort in this catchy play rhyme that scans well in English and Spanish. Kubler and Dellow’s cartoon tots, who wear bold colors and charming prints, perform each line of the verse against a white background. One welcome aspect of the entire Baby Rhyme Time series, often available in bilingual editions, is its inclusive diversity. In this offering, youngsters see a range of skin tones, a child wearing a hearing aid on the cover, and a tot with a therapeutic helmet. A Haitian Creole version, Fè Yon Ti Sote! / Hop a Little!, is forthcoming. For more bilingual offerings, try The Fruit Shop / La frutería and The Flower Shop / La ­florería (Candlewick) by Lourdes Heuer, illustrated by Zara González Hoang.

Squeak!
by Natalie Marshall; illus. by the author (Boxer)

A young mouse searches for its family by uttering the titular sound “Squeak?” in various natural settings. Readers can slide panels to see if the mouse has found a home or to watch the antics of other critters in Marshall’s bright and graphically simple imagery. The mouse utters “EEK!” in response to the reveal of each animal. A twist adds some suspense at the end as the mouse finally arrives home. For more surprising reveals, this time under fleece flaps, open Playtime for Baby Bears and ­Bathtime for Baby Bears (Usborne) by Sam Taplin, illustrated by Róisín Hahessy.

The Belly Song
by Mother Moon; illus. by Leah Giles (Little Bee)

This jaunty rhyme celebrates bellies big and little, round and flat. The verse’s buoyant joy is echoed in Giles’s bold collages with a cut-paper look. The book anticipates young listeners’ responses with a double-page spread near the end featuring a tot exclaiming “AGAIN!” On the final spread, the entire verse is repeated as an encore. The text can be sung to a tune by YouTuber Mother Moon, accessible by scanning the QR code on the back cover. From the same team, Showing I Love You honors familial bonds. For more body positivity, look for My Body and Me: My First Body Positivity Book (Soaring Kite) by Ceece Kelley, illustrated by Betania Zacarias.

Penguin Parade [Animal Lovers]
photos by James Roberts (Flowerpot)

Photos are an apt choice for illustrating board-book nonfiction. Here, the striking full-bleed photos of penguins caring for chicks, diving in water, and waddling through icy landscapes will captivate animal fans. The text, which has one to two sentences per double-page spread, is clear, direct, and enlightening: “A group of penguins in the water is called a RAFT.” For more simple nonfiction, look for Maisy Loves Bees, Maisy Loves Trees, and Maisy Loves Water [Maisy’s Planet] (Candlewick) by Lucy Cousins featuring the iconic (fictional) white mouse.

We Are Grateful Otsaliheliga: Seasons
by Traci Sorell, illus. by Frané Lessac (Charlesbridge)

Sorell and Lessac’s picture book We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga (rev. 11/18) took readers through a Cherokee extended family’s year. Now, in this sturdy boxed set of board books, each book focuses on a different season. The family plays in the leaves in Fall / Uligohvsdi, listens to elders tell stories in Winter / Gola, plants a garden in Spring / Gogeyi, and watches Auntie play stickball in Summer / Gogi. The brief (rewritten) text captions Lessac’s homey, jewel-toned illustrations (sampled from the original picture book) on chunky pages in a universal, but culturally specific, journey through the year. For other celebrations of heritage from Black and Jewish creators, respectively, explore Your Legacy Begins: First Words to Empower (Abrams ­Appleseed) by Schele Williams, illustrated by Tonya Engel, and I Like Your Chutzpah: And Other Yiddish Words You’ll Like (Rise/Penguin Workshop) by Suzy Ultman.

[Thanks to Odette Larroche-Garcia, who evaluated the Spanish text of the bilingual board books.]

From the March/April 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

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