Kitten Corner: Interactive Board Books!

These five fabulous board books have flaps, sliders, squishy bits and cut outs galore – all of these were sent free of charge by the publisher, but as always that doesn’t affect my opinions (and I already repurchased some to give to others!).

Peekaboo Pumpkin by Camilla Reid and Ingela P Arrhenius, from Nosy Crow

If you’ve been here a while you know this series is a favourite in my house, with its bright bold artwork, cute faces, and cool sliders. And now there’s a Halloween one, filled with witches, black cats, potions, ghosties, crows, and bats! I really can’t tell you how adorable this is, but if you know anyone in the right age range for it, you have to get it. It’s just fantastic – my favourite one yet!

Animals by Okidokid and Liuna Virardi

I find this series so charming, with its super-simple retro artwork and clever incorporation of flaps. Different animals are used to illustrate pairs of opposites, with each second animal getting a flap that really highlights the way they suit the word (so a ‘tall’ giraffe unfolds even taller, for example). It always puts a smile on my face to read.

You Can, Tou-can! by Gareth Lucas, from Little Tiger

This bright, fun counting book has fun cut-outs and shiny plastic toucans that pop through the pages! All five of the toucans learn to do something they’re nervous about, until none remain (but then they come back, don’t worry!). It’s a great physical way to illustrate counting down, and the fun colours and rhyming story are attention-grabbing.

Mind Your Manners, Dinosaurs! by Danielle McLean and Gareth Williams, from Little Tiger

I love the idea of this – a book teaching good table habits through dinosaurs, cut-outs and flaps! I’m not a huge fan of the way the story flips back and forth between rhyming and not-rhyming, but I do like how the second line of each couplet in the rhyming parts is under the flap, because it’s great for building anticipation. The flaps themselves are a little bit delicate and tricky to open, because you open them by the free-standing dinosaur heads which seems like a recipe for ripping, so I don’t know how long this one will last, but it’s certainly cute! (Edit: I was right. On about the third read it’s a complete mess. I don’t think this is a good design at all!)

Night-Night Animals, by Patricia Hegarty and Thomas Elliott

This adorable slider book lets you help an array of different animals (and children!) go to sleep. I really love the changing images and text, which is a great way to show the concept of ‘awake’ and ‘asleep’, and the artwork is super cute. Even cuter are all the different ways the text says goodnight to each animal – ‘kiss kiss jellyfish’ is so sweet and funny. A brilliant bedtime read.