Books

Top 14 Touch And Feel Books For Babies & Toddlers

Touch and feel books are fantastic interactive books which can be used straight away with our young babies and into those toddler years.

Babies and toddlers want to touch and feel everything which they can get their hands on and these books will be no exception.

Once they have learnt how to reach and grab objects they will show a big interest in feeling the different textures within the books.

How many times have you found yourself rushing to move something as your baby is trying to reach it?! I’ve certainly lost count!

The touch and feel books can be grabbed as many times as our cheeky munchkins desire and each page be stroked, rubbed, pressed and scratched.

They are such a good sensory tool and will allow our little munchkins to learn about the fascinating world of textures and objects.

Our favourite touch and feel books have been grouped in the following categories;

  • Animal Books
  • Transport Books
  • Everyday Books (objects and actions which occur in our everyday lives)
  • Fantasy Books

Click here for an overview of the Best Books For 1 Year Olds ranging from touch and feel to sound books, lift-the-flap to classical musical books.

Animal Books

1. Touch And Feel Wild Animals By Little Hippo Books

Despite the touch and feel areas being slightly small, we really enjoy this book as it gives interesting facts about the animals in a rhyming way.

This book can grow with our children from babies to older toddlers when they are wanting to find out about animals. 

2. Touch and Feel Forest By Lamaze

One of my favourites!

It may be a small book but there is lots of content which not only talks about the animals in the forest but the touch and feel sections are based around other objects in the forest too eg. the rough logs in the river.

This book is well adapted to growing with our young ones and can teach interesting facts about the forest.

I learnt that beavers’ houses in the rivers are called lodges too while I was reading- We’re never too old to learn!

3. The Not So Scary Hairy Spider By Rosie Greening

The cover of this book immediately makes me smile and want to explore inside with my little one.

Each page has a different texture so it really is a sensory sensation and will have little readers going in search of this book again and again.

As my daughter says “more, more.”

4. Noisy Farm By Tiger Tales

As mentioned in our 21 Best Sound Books For Babies & Toddlers, Noisy Farm is one of our favourite sound books which has easy touch buttons for our todders to be able to work themselves and get the satisfaction of creating the noise.

Not only is it a great sound book but also different textures for our little readers to learn how to stroke or pat the animals.

The words on the pages encourage to touch each animal which could also build their confidence for future farm trips. 

5. Baby Animals By Priddy Books

I enjoy the text on each of the pages within this book plus its brightly coloured pages- Our toddlers will love this too!

When they start learning colours they will be shouting the colours (and names of the animals) out in a blink of an eye!

One of my criticisms of this book is that each of the touch circles are pretty much all the same texture.

It would have been nice to give some variations for example feel the beak of the goslings rather than the fluffy belly. 

Transport Books

6. Really Feely Trucks By DK

A great book to build our toddlers’ knowledge of the trucks that they may see when out for a walk.

The textures used vary slightly from most other touch and feel books and even have a sticky part which most messy munchkins love.

The real life images and sturdy pages are a big hit for me!

7. Noisy Things That Go By Libby Walden & Tiger Tales

Lots of information for young readers to be able to digest whilst having sounds of the various transport and textured areas to become fully emerged in the book.

The pages filled with fun facts and information are sectioned in coloured squares which I think works very well for breaking up the content so it doesn’t look too overwhelming for our kiddies.

8. Baby Touch And Feel Beep! Beep! By DK

More suitable for babies rather than toddlers as it is more of an image book however could also be used to increase vocabulary (the clue was in the title of the book).

Each page is a different colour from the previous which allows for the pages to stand out and catch the attention of our curious little babies.

The subtly textured pieces on the pages make it ideal as a first touch and feel book. 

Everyday Books

9. Touch! My Big Touch And Feel Word Book By Xavier Deneux

30 touch and feel pieces in one book-wow!!

Such a good mix of content in this book; it can be used for increasing vocabulary, picture and word recognition plus exploring various textures with their curious fingers.

10. Baby Touch And Feel Counting By DK

This is very similar to the earlier mentioned Baby Touch And Feel Beep! Beep! however I feel that this book can be used not only as a touch and feel book but also when starting to learn to count.

The vivid pages and adorable images allow our small readers to recognise the objects easily and count along with mummy. 

Check out our Counting Books For Babies & Toddlers article too!

11. See Touch Feel By Roger Priddy

A sensory book full of exciting activities on each page for our children to enjoy.

They can use their tiny fingers to follow trails, feel the raised textures and look at themselves in the shiny mirror.

It is a delightfully engaging book and I would buy this book over and over again.

The white background on the pages allows for the images to ‘pop’ out and our babies and toddlers will continue to love this book. 

12. Pat The Bunny By Dorothy Kunhardt

The title of this book can be quite deceiving as in fact it isn’t just about a bunny.

This book encourages our children to copy the actions of the people in the book, with each page having a different action and something new to touch. 

Fantasy Books

13. Never Touch A Monster! By Make Believe Ideas Ltd.

Despite all of the touch areas being made from the same silicone material this book somehow manages to explore various textures on each page.

The text is coloured, mismatched font which just works so perfectly.

Perhaps with the larger words you could emphasise them that little bit more when you are reading the story aloud?!

The title of the book ‘Never Touch A Monster’ is oh so ironic because despite being told not to touch, these little explorers do exactly that anyway!

14. That’s Not My Unicorn By Usborne, Fiona Watt & Rachel Wells

We have been using this book since around the age of 6 months old and my little girl still enjoys taking it off the bookshelf and feeling the different textures now at almost 2 years old.

I would say this book is definitely better for babies and younger toddlers as the book is merely used for a few minutes now.

However that being said, I ask my daughter to try and find the mouse hiding on each page which adds extra interest to the book.

This is quite a ‘girl’ based book but there are lots more in this book series;

That’s Not My Truck

That’s Not My Puppy

That’s Not My Giraffe

That’s Not My Tractor

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